


Drabbles

by FanofBttf



Series: Future Phineas and Ferb [3]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Drabbles, F/M, Fluff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2018-05-02 05:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 27,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5235215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanofBttf/pseuds/FanofBttf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set of drabbles about Phineas, Candace and their friends, which range from romantic to platonic and from fluffy to kind of angsty. More information inside because the drabbles are too diverse to summarize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> All right, so this story, if it is a story, is simply called 'drabbles'. There's a lot still provisional about it, including the title, but here's the concept: 
> 
> I've taken a drabbles prompt from here: http://crossover-chick.dreamwidth.org/290849.html#cutid1 which I'd used for Back to the Future extensively in the days of my tenure in the BTTF fandom (well, I'd still consider myself a BTTF fan, but it's fair to say that I don't spend nearly as much time as I used to on it anymore) and started writing a few Phindace drabbles for it this February because I felt inspired. Nothing big, just a few. And then another few. And then another few. And before I knew it, I was halfway through the prompt table, had regretted picking it because it's clearly geared to BTTF, but I was on my way. And now I think it's finally time to upload some of them. 
> 
> So to recap, this is a Back to the Future prompt table of 88 ideas for drabbles. The common theme in them is... sorely lacking. Is it all about Phindace? No, because there are drabbles which feature just Ferb and Isabella or Phineas and Candace's kids, or Phineas and Candace as little kids (before they could have really become romantically involved). Then surely it's all about the same group of friends around Phineas and Candace as the relationship develops over time? Nope, because we actually see some other pairings as well, such as "The Monster of Phineas and Ferbenstein"'s Phineastein and Constance. Then surely it all takes place in one history? ...no, some drabbles are actually AU. 
> 
> There is no good way in which I could describe the content of all this. Not even the drabble concept is regular - the original prompt table had a 'no shorter than 88 words, no longer than 500 words' rule, which I'd already had trouble with when I was still writing BTTF drabbles and repeatedly broke by a good margin when I started writing these Phineas and Ferb drabbles. I then tried to set a maximum of 1000 words, but there are a few drabbles here and there which exceed even that word length. 
> 
> Final note: the drabbles aren't in chronological order, which is partly because of the order of the prompt table (which you should be able to see through the link) and partly because of the fact that they don't all take place in one universe (even if the vast majority of them do). I'll revise this list in the future, but if you want to read them in chronological order, the right order would be: 
> 
> Regular: 32, 33, 72, 1, 3, 66, 34, 2, 67, 4, 12, 15, 9, 43, 20, 55, 73, 35, 52, 87, 5, 54, 22, 40, 11, 13, 24, 38, 7, 68, 31, 6, 42, 79, 65, 18, 14, 64, 77, 47, 23, 50, 37, 16, 10, 56, 17, 60, 27, 51, 86, 41, 21, 74, 53, 85, 19, 29, 76, 57, 88.  
> AU: (non-chronological order) 8, 44, 45, 59, 63. 
> 
> Obviously this list is rather chaotic and subject to change, and the vast majority of the drabbles in this list haven't been uploaded yet (they have, however, all been written). Just to make things clearer, I shall write the ages of Phineas and Candace in the notes for every drabble in which it is directly relevant, plus additional information that you might need to place it in its context. So for this first drabble, which is what one might call a kidfic, Phineas is two and Candace is six years old. It also takes place before Linda met Lawrence and thus before Phineas and Candace met Ferb. 
> 
> And with that, I think I've covered all I have to say. If you have any questions, by all means do ask. Hope you enjoy the first few drabbles I'm uploading. Please read and review!

It was a difficult life, having an overactive little brother.  
Candace had been so happy when her mother had called her over earlier in the evening and told her that both she and Daddy were very busy tonight, so maybe she could tuck Phineas into bed? Delighted with the chance at such responsibility, she’d instantly agreed and almost set off to get her brother right away until she had been reminded that it was only eight o’clock and Phineas’ bedtime wasn’t until nine.  
Nevertheless, she’d still showed up at nine P.M. prompt, and then the whole mess had started. It wasn’t that Phineas didn’t want to go to bed, or was actively working against her. That might have been easy to resolve. The problem was that he seemed to have so much fun at everything he was doing that he dragged out every single part forever. It took him three minutes to collect all his toys and put them in the basket, since “Mommy doesn’t like it when we make a mess, Candy.”And no, he wouldn’t let her help, since this was his job to do. And then it took him six full minutes to decide which of his stuffed animals to take along to bed with him, because he didn’t want any of them feeling left out. And all with that permanent smile on his face making it impossible for her to get angry with him. (Well, she had managed that for a moment, but only when he asked her whether he could take her Ducky Momo instead. Seriously, he had to know that was off-limits.) And then there was the five-minute-teeth brushing ritual, which wouldn’t be too bad if not for him being too short to reach the bathroom sink and her having to hold him up the _entire time_.  
But now, it all seemed to be over. He was in bed, tucked in, and the obligatory story had been told. Candace smiled with relief. She’d done it. She was about to walk away…  
“Good night’s kiss.”  
Candace stopped. _What?_ “Oh, no” she said. “I’m not doing that.”  
Phineas blinked at her. “But you hafta do it, Candy” he insisted. “Mommy and Daddy always do it too. It’s part of the rules.” From the look in his eyes, the concept of _no_ kiss was inconceivable.  
Candace was torn. On one hand, she really didn’t want this. Wasn’t a first kiss special? She wanted to have it with a cute boy, like Billy Clarke or Jeremy Johnson… not with her two-year-old brother. But on the other hand, what if Phineas started crying? Then her parents would know she wasn’t responsible and couldn’t be trusted for this. She shivered at the thought. And it was only one kiss…  
Her mind made up, she leaned over the bed and kissed Phineas on the lips. It was… unusual, being this close to another person. Like she was _feeling_ him. Was this what a kiss was supposed to be like?  
After a few seconds she let go, and was surprised to see Phineas giving her an odd look. What – he’d wanted this, hadn’t he?  
The sound of laughter made her look up and see her father standing outside the room with a video camera. She blinked, confused both at him laughing and at him being there (he and Mom had said they’d be busy, after all) and walked over. “Did I do something wrong?”  
Her father grinned. “Oh no, Candy. You did it exactly right. It’s just…” A smile spread across his face. “You could have just kissed your brother on the forehead, you know.”  
Candace blushed fiercely, and quickly ran out of the room.  
Responsibility or not, she was never doing this again!


	2. Middles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during canon (more specifically, post-Summer Belongs To You). Phineas is eleven, Candace is fifteen. Just my reflections on the fact that Phineas suddenly seems to stop singing right after Jeremy shows up and he and Candace kiss - sure, the out-of-universe reason is obvious, but that doesn't mean that I can't put an interesting in-universe spin on it, right?

The day was over.  
And what a day it had been!  
Sure, Phineas Flynn reflected as he sat down on his bed, they _always_ set out to make the most of every day. But today, the summer solstice, had been the most special of all. Travelling around the world using an airplane, a rubber ball, a ship of sorts, a paper airplane and old bicycles to seize the day and prove one thing: that summer belonged to you and you could do everything as long as you just believed in yourself.  
What an exhilarating day it had been, too – they’d done more in a day than they usually did in a week. Going to Paris, to Tokyo, to the Himalayas… meeting Stacy’s cousins, Baljeet’s uncle Sabu, Vanessa, constructing all kinds of innovations just to get further…  
And yelling at Candace.  
He had yelled at his sister.  
Phineas’s smile lessened as he reflected on that. Certainly, he had been under a lot of stress at the time, and they were in a hurry to get home. Time had been of the essence.  
But he’d still snapped at her. He’d still lost his temper and shouted at one of the people he cared for the most.  
Yet he couldn’t quite say he regretted it. They _needed_ to get home. Candace had been acting silly in not getting on the tricycle and… well, what he’d done had effect. He couldn’t just let that one chance to prove that they could do anything slip through his fingers. Certainly, he could go over and apologize to her… but he couldn’t do that when he wasn’t sorry. For scaring her, perhaps. For intimidating her. But not for getting her to cooperate. And maybe it wasn’t necessary anyway – from the way she reacted to him after they got home and during the song, it appeared that all was forgiven.  
The song…  
It had been one of their best yet, Phineas was sure of that. And yet there was something about it that bugged him. Halfway through, Candace had suddenly abandoned them, just like that, to go to a freshly-returned Jeremy. They had talked a little and…  
…they had kissed.  
It was to be expected, of course. They had told each other they considered each other boyfriend and girlfriend in Paris, and that’s what boyfriends and girlfriends did. It was all natural.  
But then why had his voice suddenly fallen, had he become distracted from the song, and had it only picked up again when both Ferb and Isabella had looked curiously at him?  
He liked Jeremy. He liked Candace. He wanted the best for them and he knew they liked each other. Why, then, would them kissing generate that strange, uncomfortable feeling in his chest, accompanied by general melancholy?  
Phineas shrugged and shook his head. Never mind those confusing questions, there would be plenty of time to answer them later.  
After all, they had only reached the middle.  
They still had half of summer to go.


	3. Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phineas is three, Candace is seven. 
> 
> Like all Phineas and Ferb fan writers, I had to involve Phineas' biological father somewhere (even if he's already present implicitly in the first drabble) but this drabble isn't primarily about him, it's about his children. I won't say any more.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to commemorate our friend… husband… father… Andrew Flynn.”   
The ceremony started off in the usual way – not that she’d know, not having been to many funerals before. But this one was different.   
This one concerned her father.   
She gazed straight ahead, still unable to believe the casket out there contained the remains of the man who had taken her out to get milkshakes together just a week ago.   
And now that would never happen again.   
She remembered the police officers coming to her door and informing her mother that her father had been killed in a lab explosion. She could recall her mother’s grief and despair, but also her cries. “Why didn’t he listen? Why didn’t I insist more strongly! He knew this was dangerous, _I_ knew it… why, why, why!”   
Candace knew that at seven years old, adults thought she was too young to understand everything that was going on. But she wasn’t stupid. She knew her mother blamed herself for her father’s death. That she was convinced that if she’d just insisted harder on him coming home rather than tinkering away in the lab all the time with all that dangerous machinery, this would never have happened.   
Her theory was backed up when her mother walked away with a concerned Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro right after the ceremony. Before she left, she had turned to her daughter. “I’ll be right back. You take care of Phineas, okay?”   
Candace had nodded, and thus she found herself here, holding her little brother’s hand. Phineas just looked up and down the hall, seemingly fascinated by everything around them. If not for the solemn look on his three-year-old face, she’d have thought he had no idea anything was going on.   
“Candace?” he then asked her, tugging on her sleeve. “When’s Daddy coming back?”   
Candace bit her lip. “Phineas, Daddy isn’t coming back.”   
Phineas stared at her with those big, pleading eyes. “But does that mean we’ll never see him again?” he deduced.   
“Maybe we will” Candace replied earnestly. “But not for a long time.”   
“A month?”   
“Longer.”   
“A year?”   
“Even longer. Look, there’s no point talking about this. He’s just… gone, okay?”   
“Oh.” Phineas blinked. “So does that mean he’s not going to show me ‘round the lab anymore?”   
Candace wryly shook her head, but then she realized something. Like his father, Phineas was obsessed with inventing. Yes, their father’s death was going to put him off that for a while, but not forever. How long until he had a lab of his own? Before he too started inventing things?   
How long before he too was killed?  
The mere thought made her squeeze his hand so tight that Phineas let out a little cry of pain. “Candy, you’re hurtin’ me” he whined. She paid him no regard, recalling the words her mother had just said to her.   
_You take care of Phineas, okay?_  
Her mother relied on her. Relied on her to succeed in one important task.   
Keeping Phineas safe.   
She had already lost her father. She could not, _would_ not lose him too.   
And thus on that day, Candace made a vow to herself. Phineas might forget about their father. She herself might forget about him. They were still so young, after all. But she’d never forget about her duty, and carry it out even when she’d stop caring to remember why.   
To do for Phineas what her mother couldn’t do for Andrew.   
To protect him from himself.


	4. First

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phineas is thirteen, Candace is seventeen. 
> 
> This one takes place during the course of my full-length work. It's also the worst with regards to fluff. Seriously, if you don't like overly sappy stories, escape while you still can. But if you do, this just might be the kind of story that interests you.

Like so many other social concepts, Phineas Flynn never really got what this whole fuss with a ‘first kiss’ was all about.   
Romantically-minded people, his sister among them, had this great idea that their first kiss was something special. He could remember Candace gushing on and on about it when she had hers with Jeremy when they were back from Paris. But personally, he didn’t see the point. What was so special about a first kiss compared to any subsequent ones? It wasn’t like the concept of putting lips against each other was such a unique experience – in fact, he remembered his parents kissing him all the time as a kid, and his aunts and grandparents… a first kiss was rarely the real ‘first’ kiss, and while Phineas certainly understood that romance was a big deal, he doubted that would really change the nature of the kiss itself.   
All of that changed when he kissed Candace for the first time, sitting on her bed. And while to her it might have seemed quite normal, to him it was revolutionary.   
For the first time, kissing meant more to him than just a brief means of affection or goodbye. It was a sweet, tender feeling against him, a feeling he wanted to keep up for much longer than those few seconds it actually was. A feeling that made him want to wrap his arms around her and pull her close to him, no matter how little he was able to achieve with that. The moment made him… happy, in a way that he’d never understood before.   
And that was why when Phineas looked up and gazed into Candace’s kind, crystal blue eyes, he felt that this first kiss was very special indeed.


	5. Lasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phineas is eighteen, Candace is twenty-two. 
> 
> This drabble was actually written before "Act Your Age", so any similarities between the Phineas, Ferb, Buford, Baljeet, Isabella and Candace of this drabble and the ones of that episode (since they're the same age as they are there) are accidental. It's not my best drabble, but I still kinda like it, if only for the banter at the beginning.

“How about a giant airplane?”   
“Been there, done that.”   
“A rocket flight through outer space?”   
“Oh, come on. We’ve been there so many times, it feels like the grocery store.”   
Did they really think he couldn’t hear them? He knew he had a reputation for being oblivious, but this was too much.   
“Wait, I’ve got it! What about a super-super-duper-turbo-rollercoaster!”   
“Are you still on that, Buford?”  
“I didn’t add turbo last time!”   
“That does not make the proposal stronger, not grammatically at least.”   
“Save the dorky stuff for Ginger, nerd.”   
“I will. At least she appreciates me.”   
“Hey, I appreciate you! I haven’t given you a wedgie in like forever! But seriously guys, why is it so wrong to close off the way we began?”   
“Because today’s event should be special.” That was Ferb’s voice. “It is Phineas’ last day here, after all.”   
Phineas stopped straining his ears to just stare into the yard from his window and reflect on those words. They were true. It was his last day here. The last time having old-fashioned fun before he would go off to live with Candace and leave it all behind.   
Neither of them really understood. Those who didn’t know about them were confused by him ending an active life to go live with the sister that had, in their narrow perception, always bullied him as a kid. Those who did know – Isabella and Stacy – thought it was only natural that romantic partners should live together as soon as possible. Neither of them really got it. He supposed maybe Ferb had a clue, but…   
Hey, where _was_ Ferb?   
“Right here.”   
Phineas jumped up, startled, and turned to his brother. “All right, I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that out loud.”   
Ferb shrugged and gave him a clearly readable look. _You didn’t have to._  
All of a sudden, Phineas felt an urge to confess to his brother. Ferb had a way of doing that to people. “I… I don’t know if I can do this” he said. “Of course, I want to live with Candace, sooner rather than later. But leaving all this behind…”   
Ferb put a hand on his shoulder as he stared at the yard. “All of our coolest inventions were built here” he said in a broken voice. “The rollercoaster. The haunted house. The backyard beach. Even the lemonade stand.” He smiled. “Every day we tried to make the most of summer because we knew it wouldn’t last forever. And it hasn’t.”   
Ferb nodded. “Then you realize this was inevitable.”   
“What?”   
“Even if you hadn’t been in a relationship with Candace, all of this would have eventually come to an end. You merely accelerated the process.”   
Phineas blinked. “So you’re saying I should just give up and accept that those great summers are never coming back?”   
Ferb shook his head and handed his brother a piece of paper. Phineas looked at it and realized what it was instantly. It was a blueprint, but not for a new invention.   
For a construction site.   
The redhead skimmed the print. It was a building… a company headquarters… called Flynn-Fletcher Incorporated? (All right, maybe they’d have to change that name). But the overall concept sounded good. “You want us to be CEO’s of some kind of inventing company?” he said.   
“Well, you’re always going on about how you don’t know which of your million interests to major in. This way you’ll have a clearer path to take.”   
Phineas frowned. That wasn’t Ferb’s voice. He spun around and faced his sister. “You knew about this?”   
Candace nodded. “Ferb told me about your depressed mood. Phineas, you didn’t have to move in with me. I just assumed…”   
“You assumed correctly” Phineas replied. “I want this as much as you do. I just worried about leaving my old life behind. Now with Ferb’s blueprint, it looks like I don’t have to.” He smiled. “Thanks, Ferb.”   
Ferb hugged him, and Candace joined in. Phineas beamed. It was good to be back.   
“Now who’s up for seeing what kind of scheme the others cooked up?”


	6. Hours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phineas is twenty-four, Candace is twenty-eight. I think I'm going to stop writing that down every chapter because I do have hints dropped in each drabble with which the attentive reader should be able to figure it out (like the 'eleven years' in this one) and even if they don't they can still enjoy the drabble.

Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Centuries.  
They were all ways to mark the passing of time – time that has already elapsed, or time that is yet to come. And yet those words felt so empty to Phineas Flynn.  
The clock told him that he had been ‘married’ to Candace for only a few hours now. But so much had happened in those few hours. Their wedding celebrations, the trip to the airport, the long wait at the airport which had ultimately resulted in them throwing snowballs at one another, and finally the long flight to their hotel in Paris.  
To be honest, he still didn’t feel like a married man – that the beautiful woman lying next to him was his bride. And of course technically, she wasn’t. There was nothing official about the ceremony they’d had that afternoon, and there hadn’t even been any forms to sign. It had only marked a commitment, one of love and friendship and passion towards one another, one of trust and loyalty to one another for the rest of their lives.  
And now they were here. In Paris, in the city of love. And Phineas knew that if it had been up to him, none of this would have ever happened. It had been Ferb’s idea to get them a wedding, and Isabella’s to get them to Paris. Without them, Phineas knew he was nowhere. And yet he knew he’d have to be romantic on his own if he wanted his relationship with Candace to last. Not because Candace expected him to – sure, she might give him a resigned look every now and then when something romantic went straight over his head, but she was used to that from him by now and she accepted him the way he was rather than try to mold him into something he should be – but because he felt that Candace deserved it. She needed someone who would treat her like the most important person in his world, and it was now for him to be that person. It wasn’t easy for him, but he was making progress – at least he was doing a lot better already than he ever would’ve managed if Isabella had gotten her wish all those years ago.  
Eleven years. Eleven years since he and Candace had entered into a relationship. And yet, at times like these it felt like a matter of hours away. He could recall with crystal clarity the moment he kissed his older sister for the first time, and it was still a moment he treasured even despite the fact that he had become intimately familiar with a lot more than just her lips over the past years. And despite that he still felt so young, so inexperienced, so immature. Had it really been eleven years? Had he really had eleven years of dating experience, or was he at his core still the same oblivious thirteen-year-old who had no idea what to do in a long-term romantic relationship?  
And then there was the future – their future. It wouldn’t be theirs alone, just one glimpse at her belly could tell him that, but for the time being he could imagine it was. Them living together, maturing further into the adults the calendar claimed they already were. It would be a future where even the free spirit of inventing would further have to be channeled into practical pursuits, a future in which they would probably both have long careers and they’d have to be even more mature and even more careful about no one finding out the truth. And they’d be living together, hopefully growing old together one day, which could mean that they would be together for another sixty years or so, which was a good thing of course but even so it still felt like an immense mountain to climb, complete with expectations to fulfill and dreams that might not turn out the way he wanted them to. And it could all be over before he knew it.  
Yes, the passing of time was something that undoubtedly happened, and yet it would all be so relative, like it had always been. Days could fly by. Minutes could trudge forward slowly. And just a few simple hours could be witness to a change in the rest of his life, a special moment that would always leave its influence over the remainder of his story and that he could treasure forever.  
This honeymoon would be over in a week. This wedding night would be over by the morning. But he was here now. Lying under the thin sheets of their hotel bed, watching the moon’s gentle light illuminating his sister’s peaceful, sleeping body. He ran his hands along her curves below the sheet and couldn’t help but think about how lucky he was to be here right now.  
They’d be here for only a few, simple hours.  
But sometimes, a few hours could be more than enough.


	7. Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special moment in Phineas and Candace's life together. I know you haven't seen many drabbles yet that focus outside their immediate relationship and may wonder what all that fuss was about in the intro, but those drabbles will come eventually, I promise. As a college student myself, I think the brief depiction I gave of college here is accurate but I'm not familiar with the American school system so I wouldn't be sure.

“…and that concludes my thesis on the nature of the atomic core. As for the electrons…” The lecturer checked the clock on the wall. “I see it’s about time, so we’ll discuss that next week. Dismissed. Oh, and don’t forget your assignments for Tuesday – you’re all well into your twenties now, I really shouldn’t have to say that anymore.”  
The students got up and started to pack their bags. Phineas, too, packed his bag and after a trip to his locker to make sure he hadn’t left anything behind he made his way to the bus and plopped down next to Ferb.  
Routine. It was all just routine. Going to college, studying, making assignments, passing tests, listening to lectures, and finally heading home with the same bus along the same route on the same hour every Friday (well, it had been a different bus route ever since he and Candace had bought their own house, but even that was two years ago now). All days were the same, all days were uniform. They were just days and days upon end.  
Sure, he was twenty-four now, and he was on the edge of finishing his college education altogether, but for the time being the uniformity continued bothering him. Even if a lot of that had been present in high school too, it had somehow felt different then. Less restraining, and more relaxing. Maybe to a person like Buford, who frequented the local bars as often as he could, it would feel the other way round, but Phineas had never been _that_ kind of outgoing.  
The bus approached his stop, and Phineas turned to his brother. “Coming along?”  
Ferb nodded, and Phineas realized it was another part of the routine. Ferb would always come along, they’d discuss their week and their plans for the weekend and over the next days set them into motion.  
All days of routine. Day after day after day, and until his graduation next spring Phineas supposed he would have to put up with it.   
They walked the short route to his house, and Phineas opened the door to see no one there. Now that was a break from routine. “Candace?”  
It took an abnormally long time before the reply came. “Bathroom.” A pause. “I’ll be with you in a second.”  
Phineas and Ferb exchanged glances and shrugged, and the two settled themselves on the couch. Phineas was just about to head over to the kitchen to fetch his stepbrother a drink when their sister came in.  
The weary look on her face struck him first. With her twenty-eight years of age, Phineas had in his admittedly biased opinion always considered her remarkably beautiful, but all of that was clouded by the way she was frowning. She was also clutching something in her hands.  
“Phineas?” Her voice sounded weary too. “Can I talk to you alone for a sec?”  
Phineas’ eyes automatically went to the door, but it was shut. “We are alone” he replied, frowning. He looked around the room again and shook his head. “There’s no one here but the three of us.”  
Candace sighed and exchanged a look with Ferb. “You’re right – it’s not like you weren’t going to tell him within an hour anyway…”  
She sat down on the couch, next to him, and it wasn’t until that point that Phineas realized she’d meant to talk to him… _without_ Ferb. Wow, this _had_ to be serious then. He looked up at her. “What’s wrong?”  
In a wordless reply, she threw the item she’d been holding into his lap.  
Phineas didn’t even recognize it at first, even though Ferb’s surprised “oh” indicated that this was serious. In his defense, the device was facing the wrong way up, and he had been dealing with so many USB-sticks lately that it was the obvious assumption to make. It was therefore not until he flipped it over that he, too, froze.  
His eyes shot up to meet with those of his girlfriend. “You mean, you’re… you are…”  
Candace nodded. “I’m pregnant.”  
Pregnant. The mere word sounded so alien to his ears that... of course he could have seen it coming, and they hadn’t exactly gone out of their way to avoid it. But even so…  
He might have strained off in endless mental rambling if not for Ferb’s hand on his shoulder. His stepbrother smiled faintly. “Congratulations.”  
“Thanks… I guess” Phineas mumbled. Of course he and Isabella were going to congratulate him, because he was going to be a father.  
Good heavens, he was going to be a _father_.  
The idea made him nauseous, so he tried to focus on something else – the more practical aspects – and then something struck him. The house was big enough, sure, but their joint incomes were not. He would really have to turn Flynn-Fletcher Incorporated into something in order to be able to afford taking care of Candace's child. _Their_ child.   
When he relayed those concerns to his girlfriend, she nodded. “You're going to have to accelerate your plans” she said, giving him and Ferb a wry smile. “But I don't doubt that you'll be able to pull it off, Phineas. It’ll be tough on our finances for a while, but we will make it. I mean, when have you guys ever not succeeded at something you've put your mind to?”  
Phineas nodded dully, and then allowed himself a wry smile. Sure, he would have to deal with money troubles, getting onto the job market, and taking care of his girlfriend in anticipation of the arrival of their child. (Whom they’d have to think up a name for too, even though he suspected Candace had that part pretty much covered.)  
But those endless days of routine?  
For the time being, they were definitely over.


	8. Weeks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AU drabble. Ending might be shocking, so consider yourself warned for that. Don't worry, it'll all be explained in some other drabble - let's just say this is an AU I've spent quite some time on, but little about it is any good for the main characters. 
> 
> Also, I hope you don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of chapters/drabbles I just uploaded in one turn - I just wanted to get a bunch of drabbles online to get the story started. Progress won't be anywhere near as fast in the future. Reviewing might definitely help it along, though!

If asked, Candace could tell you a lot of things about those three weeks she had dated Phineas.   
She could tell you about the awkwardness of kissing someone whose head was a triangle. Of how much more annoying Phineas’ oblivious nature was when she was confronted with it all the time. She could tell you about the risks they faced, and of how she would start awake at night and her heartbeat wouldn’t calm down enough for her to sleep for nearly half an hour, images going through her head of how easily everything could come crashing down on them.   
Yes, Candace could tell you all those things. But she wouldn’t. The grass beneath her knees made sure of that.   
Instead, she would tell you about the _good_ things about Phineas, the traits she had refused to admit were there for too long. His kindness. His patience. His smile. His incomprehensible love and devotion for her, where she had expected never to find anyone again after Jeremy.   
She’d tell you about the amazing things he had created and the joy he’d had while making them. About the times she’d still tried to bust him because she was a stupid obsessive girl who couldn’t see the forest through the trees, but also about the time he had forgiven her for all of that and resolved to help her get over it. He truly was the best boyfriend she could ever have wished for.   
But above all, she’d tell you about him, Phineas Flynn. The way he had been, when she hadn’t. The way he had acted, when she hadn’t. And the way it had all ended because even after those three weeks he was still the same oblivious, optimistic, altruistic guy he had always been… and as always when Phineas did something, she hadn’t noticed until too late.   
And looking at her brother’s empty grave, Candace couldn’t help but wonder what she could have done differently.


	9. Months

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Candace runs into Stacy, and they discuss her present relationship.

“Hey, Candace!”

The seventeen-year-old looked up and frowned at the familiar voice. She looked around until she spotted her friend at the malt shop. “Stacy!”

The Asian girl motioned to her, so she jogged over and sat down next to her. “Uh – this chair was free, wasn’t it?”

Stacy smirked. “It wasn’t, but it will be for the next ten minutes. Coltrane just realized he left his wallet at home, so he went off to get it.” She shrugged. “I would have paid instead, but I can’t seem to find my wallet anywhere either… and it is a soda shop, so we don’t have to worry about the food getting cold before he gets a chance to eat it.”

Candace nodded. “Good point. I didn’t even realize you and Coltrane were back together, though.”

“We’re not” Stacy replied instantly. “Not officially, at least. It’s just a casual date… it’s not even a date. I’m not sure.” She blushed. “Speaking of which, I’d been meaning to ask you about your own relationship.”

Candace blinked, wondering for a moment whether this was just a stall tactic or if Stacy truly meant it. When her friend’s face stayed clear, that increased her puzzlement. “I’ve told you pretty much everything Phineas and I have done lately,” she said, after first checking back and forth whether no one they knew was within hearing range. “It all hasn’t been very spectacular, but I wouldn’t know what else to say.”

Stacy nodded. “And that’s what I was wondering about.”

“Come again?”

“When you were dating Jeremy, you _always_ had something to say” Stacy said. “You’d call me up to five times a day to tell me how wonderful he was, and you reported every little thing he did as if it was a miracle. I even made a recording of me saying “uh-uh” so I wouldn’t have to listen to you on the phone all the time. You called a microwaved pizza a romantic dinner just because he made it.”

Candace blushed. “I can’t have been that bad…”

“No, you were worse” Stacy replied. “Which brings me to the question – why aren’t you acting that way now? Don’t you love Phineas anymore?”

“Of course I do, it’s just…” Candace shrugged. “Different. I am in love with him, I look up to him, but I don’t exactly fawn over him. He’s a great guy, but I’m not as amazed by my boyfriend as I was when I dated Jeremy – not to mention I was just a kid back then.”

“You were still together half a year ago” Stacy said dryly.

Candace blushed again. “Even so, I think I grew up a little since then. Our relationship is not weaker than the one I had with Jeremy, just… different. I’m not obsessed with Phineas, but that also means I don’t have to panic about whether he still likes me. He makes me feel at ease, in a way. Do you understand?”

Stacy frowned. “I guess so. It still seems a far cry from the Candace Flynn I used to know.”

Candace shrugged. “Maybe so. But you don’t have to worry about our relationship.” She heard the sound of her cell phone’s text alarm and flipped open the screen before grinning. “And if you need any further proof of that, look at this.”

 Stacy gawked. “Is that a giant movie theater right in your backyard?”

“Yup!” Candace confirmed. “I asked him whether he was going to do something for Valentine’s Day because that was a little cliché, so he resolved to celebrate it on January 14th instead. I was supposed to go out shopping and come back when he’d text me that he and Ferb were done. It’s a little over-the-top, but I know he means well and remember: this is only the outside. If this was all he had prepared, he never would have sent me the picture because it would ruin the surprise.”

“I see” Stacy mused. “What did you get him?”

“I still need to pick up some tools, but I already bought an exclusive behind-the-scenes book on the making of the Stunkleberry Finkbat movies” Candace said. “Which reminds me – I really have to get going now. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

“I understand” Stacy nodded. “Tell him I said hi.”

“I will.” Candace stood up and walked over to the electronics store, a smile on her face. Stacy’s worries were legitimate, but ultimately unnecessary. Her and Phineas’ relationship had lasted for three months now – and by this point, Candace was absolutely sure it was here to stay.


	10. Years

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I personally quite like this drabble, since it reflects on the various look-alike characters we see throughout the series and speculates a little on how they ended up (or at least, how they end up in my personal headcanon/ideal Phineas and Ferb world). There are some situations when Phindace is frankly impossible (such as 'Doof Dynasty', where it's fairly obvious Chinese Phineas ends up with princess Isabella) but there are also some where having the opposite of that, Phinbella, as official couple would be grasping at straws (Excaliferb, where there's no evidence the sprite Isabel thinks Phineas is at all attractive - in fact, given the nature of their quest, she probably spends more time talking to Ferb than Isabella does in the average episode). Some of these scenarios will be expanded on in later drabbles and/or short stories. Please read and review!

It is a common factoid that history repeats itself.

That adagio is readily apparent in daily life, but it was rarely more apparent than in the Flynn family. Entire generations would bear great resemblance to the next, adapted to the circumstances in which they lived, but with the same basic traits a constant underneath. Innovativeness. Enthusiasm. And (obliviousness to) love.

Those traits manifested themselves in a different way every time, adapting to the times around them, which lead to people being born in similar families taking on different courses in life. Often unwilling and resisting, because if there was one trait that ran strong in the family it was stubbornness, but eventually caving in anyway. And some had been happier in that than others.

It was how the inventor of the wheel, young, ambitious Phinabunk, had ended up with shy, sweet Isabelock. It was how their distant descendants in China had crossed paths again, with this Phineas being the most eager to court princess Isabella.

But characters also differed. For it was not the medieval Phineas, a brave warrior though he was, who ended up courting the sprite Isabel, but rather his brother, quiet yet heroic Ferbalot. And where one might dismiss that tale as mere historical fiction rather than an actual description of members of the Flynn family, they cannot deny that even in recent times, Ohio Flynn remained alone, always too obsessive with adventure and treasure hunting to seriously consider marriage, either to the girl who had – albeit for good reasons – betrayed them to his archnemesis, or to the journalist who always followed him and Rhode Island around.

But Ohio’s great-great-grandfather took a different path. The lonely Dr. Phineastein, working up in his castle, had his heart softened not by the fair yet plain Isabella, but by the woman who matched his creativity, his spirit, his enthusiasm so much better – his governess, Constance.

It had been their relationship from which a whole new branch of the Flynn family tree had sprung. Their relationship, too, which was replicated in that of their descendants two hundred years hence, when those traits that Phineastein and Constance had possessed met once more in their descendents Phineas and Candace.

It was some basic genealogical research, inspired by a comment from her mother after they had finally come clean to her about their relationship, which made Candace dig up the roots of the story of the platypus monster, the story she’d been told so long ago. Her mother had wondered aloud whether she and their biological father had not been related too. It soon turned out that, despite the physical resemblance, the two branches of the Flynn family weren’t actually all that close. Andrew and Linda Flynn had their most direct common ancestors well beyond what would ordinarily qualify as relatives, namely in Phineastein and Constance.

When Candace read that story, she had been caught by a sense of continuity. In what way were she and Phineas the heirs to their ancestors? In what way was history repeating itself so many years later? Had they truly been meant for each other from the start?

Phineas, of course, had never been particularly enthralled by the idea of destiny, and thus rejected her hypothesis right away. There were so many Phineases and Candaces over the years – or at least, their closest analogies – who _hadn’t_ ended up together, and even if they had it didn’t mean anything. It just meant they had had ancestors confronted with similar situations who had made similar choices. It didn’t mean they were destined to do the same thing from the start. Even when Candace reminded him he himself had said he’d loved her from the day of his birth, he replied that this was all well and good, but it had in no way burdened him or her to choose the other over another partner. They had ended up together due to their own choices, their own circumstances, their own free will, their own decision to seize that opportunity. _Carpe diem_.

Very well. Candace admitted that he was right there. Objectively, the similarities were no more than coincidences.

But under the surface, she somehow felt a bond between her and Constance, and between Phineas and Dr. Phineastein. A bond across the ages, a bond that transcended all those years between them. A bond that meant that maybe they weren’t _meant_ to end up together…

…but that it had been pretty darn likely indeed.


	11. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The drabble about friendship that I mentioned earlier. Short, simple and fluffy. Some things don't need a thousand words to properly detailed in - they are clear enough that even a piece as short as this will suffice.

There were few things more important in life than having true friends.

For a long time, Phineas had taken having friends for – well, not for granted, he never really took anything for granted as his unbridled optimism made him acknowledge nice things that happened to him no matter how many times they did – but he had never needed to have the deep, emotional bond one needed to have with true friends.

It wasn’t because he hadn’t wanted such a bond, of course – it was simply that there was nothing to have it over. To be comforted in distress, to share a secret? Phineas simply didn’t need those things. And thus, all his friendships remained casual, no matter how much he appreciated them.

All of that changed after he and Candace had told Isabella their secret. And, as Phineas tried to resume his life thereafter, he gradually began to realize how special this was. If Isabella or Ferb so much as breathed a word to anyone, their relationship would fall apart. And he knew Isabella had really wanted to get together with him. If she allowed jealousy to get the better of her…

But she didn’t. In fact, he _himself_ came closer to spilling the beans once or twice. Ferb and Isabella kept mum about them, no matter what compromising situation his and Candace’s affair landed them in.

It seemed so minor. To those involved, it appeared natural – when Phineas once thanked Isabella for not telling anyone about him and Candace, she’d replied “Well, that’s what you asked from me, wasn’t it?” But to Phineas, this wasn’t natural. And that was why he and Candace resolved to ensure their group of four remained intact into adulthood, and why he would make sure Ferb and Isabella had everything they could wish for as much as he did for his girlfriend.

Because as important as romance was, Phineas knew his life would be empty if he no longer had his best friends at his side.


	12. Enemies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This drabble takes place within the context of "Fear, Loving and Secrets in the Tri-State Area", specifically in Chapter 22. I wrote this before I wrote that chapter but I referenced it throughout that chapter, so it's probably wise to read this before you go on to that chapter because otherwise you might miss out on something in the completed work. It's not a huge deal with regards to continuity, but it does get a little awkward if you miss out on this drabble. That's just how things happen sometimes when you write stories.
> 
> EDIT: I just noticed I made some formatting errors with regards to the last four drabbles. Don't worry, I'll fix it soon when I have time for it.

Avoiding Candace after their breakup, Phineas found, was tougher than expected.

They had met at breakfast, with neither speaking a word. Throughout the day they had bumped into each other once or twice, again without speaking much. It was only after his mother had asked him whether he and Candace were okay that he had made a casual comment to her which had been answered just as casually, and that was all their conversation. Yes, he spent much of his time throwing himself at inventing, but Candace hadn’t even come down to bust them – how ominous did that sound now he knew the full truth – instead yelling at him to keep quiet. To his own surprise he had toned down the volume, and that had been the last he’d seen of her.

Until now.

After receiving no answer to repeated knocks, Phineas Flynn hesitantly took a few steps into his sister’s bedroom. Candace turned around from the desk she was working on and sighed. “What do you want, Phineas?” she asked. “This is not about rekindling our relationship, is it?”

Phineas blinked at the suggestion, which had definitely not been on his own mind. He was still mad at her, after all, and even though he had loved her intensely for three weeks that didn’t mean they could just, should just go back to that. He shook his head. “I was the one to break up with you, remember?”

Candace nodded. “Then why are you here?”

Her brother sighed. “I need to ask you something” he said. She nodded. “Candace, through all those years of busting us, of trying to show Mom what we’d done…”

“Yes?”

“…did you ever consider Ferb and me as enemies?”

There, the question was out, and it had been nagging him for some time now. Phineas just couldn’t imagine that his sister’s intentions had been evil, but he knew now that all those times, despite knowing what they were doing was innocent at heart, she had wanted to get them punished. Had Candace ever outright considered him the enemy? An adversary to be beaten, in whose torment she would delight?

Candace started at the question, and stared at him. “Phineas…” she said, trembling. “I love you. You and Ferb. I’ve definitely seen you as annoying sometimes, but never as my enemy. I just… I always wanted to show Mom what you were doing because it was dangerous, Phineas! I didn’t want you to get hurt. And I guess I was jealous, too, and frustrated…”

“Jealous?” Phineas said. “But we never asked you not to participate…”

Candace shook her head, standing up and walking over to him. “It’s a long story. Just know that I could never have hated you, okay?”

“Okay” Phineas replied.

“And hey.” Phineas looked up at his sister, and to his surprise she hugged him. “I know things are going to be awkward between us for a long while yet, but can we be friends again?”

Privately, Phineas wondered about that. The hug made him feel warm and comfortable and reminded him so strongly of when they had been dating… he wasn’t sure if he could ever view her as ‘just’ a friend again. Could they really be friends? Phineas didn’t know, but he did know one thing he was wholeheartedly relieved at.

That they were not, and never had been, enemies.


	13. Lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another drabble, at last. I was a bit hesitant about uploading this one, for which you might discover the reason when reading it. Still, it describes what is without a doubt an important moment in Phineas and Candace's life. Hope you enjoy and if you don't, please make it clear why you didn't.

Sometimes, Candace wondered just in what way Phineas loved her.   
Certainly, he bought her presents, comforted and helped her when she needed it and in general showed that he loved her very much… romantically, at least. But physically, he was far from forward. He kissed her of course, sometimes with surprising passion, but that was about as far as they had ever gone ever since the moment they started dating. Which, if she wasn’t mistaken, would be six years ago next week.   
It wasn’t that she particularly minded his innocence, his reserve, his nervousness – there was something about the way he blushed that endeared him to her. But six years had made her wonder if that was all there was to it. Certainly, Phineas had told her numerous times that he thought she was beautiful, but that was all the proof he had given her of physical attraction.   
And then there were the children. When she had first started dating her brother, the whole concept of the relationship had been so far removed from her old, ordinary life with Jeremy that all her romantic dreams – date him through college, get married, have Xavier and Amanda – went out of the window. But over time those desires had returned in full force. She wanted to have that old ideal back, of a happy little family. And even though she knew having kids with her brother would be… problematic, to say the least, she also knew that she wouldn’t want to have anyone else father her children.   
That meant that eventually, they would have to step up the relationship from just kissing and cuddling. As enjoyable as that was, it wasn’t going to help them have kids. Not that she wanted to have them right now, she was only twenty-three after all, but they needed to take that step to have the possibility available.   
After taking the initiative to make an extra special dinner for her boyfriend when he came home from college, Candace thus subtly began to address the issue. Then less subtly, then explicit, until at last he got it. She could see the mixed emotions across his startled face, but curiously not which one was dominant. For once, she had no idea what he was thinking, and she waited with bated breath for his answer.   
“Wow” he finally muttered. “I never… I never really thought about that before. You’re right, though – we’ve been together for so long, we’re both adults now, so… well…” He blushed. “It really is about time. And come to think of it, I am kinda curious to see what you look like without clothes on. It’s been forever since I last saw you like that.”   
Candace snorted. “Not since we were kids” she replied. “So…” She gave him a seductive smile. “Should we try it? Tonight?”   
Phineas nodded slowly. “You know, I wonder if Ferb and Isabella have had this kind of conversation yet” he said thoughtfully.   
“If they haven’t, they definitely will eventually” Candace replied. “They might not be living together yet, but you know how Isabella has all those dreams about her future with having kids and all. Ferb knows there’ll be heck to pay if he hasn’t asked her to marry him yet by the time they finish college.”   
Phineas chuckled. “You know, Isabella is a great friend, but I’m glad I never had to put up with that.”   
Candace smiled and hugged him. “Yeah, but you have to put up with me instead.”   
Phineas shrugged good-naturedly in response. “True, true. But at least you were a little flexible when your future turned out not to be exactly what you’d planned it as.” He kissed her cheek. “Now what are your plans for tonight?”   
“I got us one of those nice romantic movies you love so much from the library” Candace said, chuckling at his groan. “Then we could watch it together, have some snacks, and turn in early. I got us some candles for the bedroom… and then we’ll see what happens next” she finished, winking at him.   
Phineas nodded. “One question.”   
“Shoot.”   
“Why candles? There’s not going to be a power outage, is there?”   
Candace groaned and sat down. “Seriously, Phineas? Seriously?”   
Phineas shrugged. “I just can’t see the point. If you want light, turn it on. If you don’t want light, turn it off. That’s the whole idea of electricity, isn’t it? There’s no real point in having candles around…”   
Candace sighed.   
This was going to be a long night.


	14. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another drabble. Not very much that I can say about this one.

For many, many years, Phineas Flynn paid little active regard to anything but his inventions.   
It wasn’t that he didn’t like other people – he was a kind and social guy, and one who wouldn’t go for more than an hour without his brother before he started to miss him. But they were always just… there. Present in the background. And although he loved his parents, his siblings and his friends, when planning for the day, in practice he turned to inventing first.   
Phineas’ obsession with inventing became a hazard occasionally, when he would plan to do something but other things would get in his way. Like when he just wasn’t allowed to help Baljeet in climbing Danville Mountain, or how everything seemed determined to keep him from success when they travelled around the world to prove that summer belonged to you. Those where the rare moments where he would get truly annoyed.   
Certainly, there were days when he and Ferb would actively decide not to do anything. But those were rare, and he never stopped a plan when it was already set in motion. His project of the day took priority, with the people around him of course being considered but not so much because he automatically assumed they would go with him. Since he wanted to invent, why wouldn’t they want to join him? It took him many years to understand that, and even when he did, his attitude to inventing didn’t change. Child play or professional entrepreneurship, it all came down to the activity he loved the most.   
Isabella had long hoped that when her inevitable relationship with Phineas would start, she could change that and shift his attention away from inventing. When Candace started dating Phineas, she didn’t even try. And yet she would succeed, by giving Phineas something else to focus on, something that drew him even more than his ordinarily boundless ambitions and turned that energy into a different direction.   
A family of his own.   
It was silly in a way, because he had of course been part of a loving family for years, and it certainly didn’t happen overnight. But gradually, after Amanda was born, it happened more and more often that Phineas would lose his concentration in the office, and that instead of his great project the subject forefront on his mind would be the well-being of his little girl – and later, his little boy too. Of course he had loved his parents, and he and Ferb were inseparable, but now that he and Candace stood at the head of an entirely new family…  
It was that which, time and time again, drove him to go home early, to quit a project of the day even when it wasn’t quite finished. Because even though he loved inventing, it all paled in comparison to what took the new center stage in his life.   
Raising a family.


	15. Strangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little in-character reflection from Candace about Phineas. I think over time, she would gradually come to realize more and more just how important he is to her and how lucky she is to have a brother, let alone a boyfriend, like him. The time frame isn't really explicit in this one, but they're both still supposed to be teenagers throughout.

Sometimes, you can live beside people for years, but yet have your own perceptions cloud much of what you could come to know about them.  
It was what happened to her mother, of course, who had never seen her sons as more than just innocent kids playing around with their friends, who had never managed to see the amazing contraptions they created, not until the day she finally busted all three Flynn-Fletcher children at the same time and began to see the light. And even then, Candace still found her mother to be oddly slow in accepting what her sons had done at times, trying to find innocuous explanations for odd events she herself readily attributed to Phineas and Ferb. She probably couldn’t blame her – even if Linda Flynn-Fletcher knew now what Phineas and Ferb were capable of, that didn’t mean the years of not seeing anything hadn’t drilled that into her system so much that she still had trouble processing it.  
And in a sense, Candace figured, _she_ was experiencing the exact same thing.  
Oh, she’d known Phineas was a genius. She knew he had skills she couldn’t dream to match, and she had long resented him for it. But yet, in a way, her brother had truly been a stranger to her. And where Linda had simply not seen, she had seen but still not realized – which, in a way, made her _more_ naïve and stupid.  
All those years, she had seen Phineas as a silly little kid. A nuisance and a bother. Someone who always built these impossible, showy projects that outclassed everything she did and that her mother would never see. She had never really hated him, but she had definitely been resentful and spiteful towards him. Why could he never act normal and did he always have to insist on doing things in such a big and grotesque way, all just to annoy her?  
But as she spent more time with him, that image of him fell away, and it was like she got to know the true Phineas Flynn. The one who had always been there out in the open, but whom she’d simply refused to see. The sweet, patient, sensitive young man who cared more for her than she herself did. The creator of inventions that weren’t only big and annoying, but were amazing and creative and useful and just plain _fun_.  
Fair enough – Isabella had never truly realized what Phineas was like either, or she wouldn’t have had such high hopes that of course were shattered in the end. And Candace knew that to some extent, realization had already set in before they officially started dating. Because she could never have realized his affections were romantic without acknowledging him as an equal, and she could never fully do that without seeing that he wasn’t just an annoying little kid. Part of her, she supposed, had known this side of her brother all along. She’d just simply never connected the dots until now.  
She had apologized, of course, for overreacting and mistreating him, and for being suspicious of the person who was the least worthy of suspicion in all Danville. Phineas hadn’t wanted to hear of it. But he had accepted her invitation out on several dates, dates which primarily served but one purpose.  
To make sure they would be strangers no more.


	16. Parenthood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this particular drabble, it might be good to read my short story 'The Little Things That Changed' first to get some context on Amanda and the circumstances regarding how she found out the truth about her parents.

Parenthood, Candace Flynn reflected, was something you didn’t plan for. It just happened.   
When Amanda was born, after the initial happy daze, she had immediately tried to set out guidelines for herself and the baby, and any further children she might have. Phineas hadn’t been very enthusiastic, but he’d stepped aside and let her have her way, as he so often did.   
She’d thus set out a clear plan on what she wanted to do different compared to their own parents. Such as making it clear from the start what kind of creative behavior was allowed at what age – no need for busting in her house. Or teaching them the value of peace and quiet, “like Uncle Ferb!” That was a little selfish, but she felt it was rare enough that she and Phineas were able to have some relaxed time alone. She didn’t know how Lawrence and Linda had been able to keep up with two hyperactive kids (and Ferb).   
The one thing she taught them most of all, though, was openness and honesty. She wanted the kids to be able to share their problems with their parents, and Phineas fully backed her in that, having been naturally inclined that way his entire life.   
It was therefore a rough wake-up call when at Amanda’s eleventh birthday she caught her daughter telling a tale slightly taller than it was. She gave her an annoyed glare…   
…and in response, Amanda simply pointed to her grandparents.   
As always, the worst part wasn’t the action – the worst part was that she was right. If she wanted her kids to be honest to each other and to her, then she – and Phineas – would have to come clean to their own parents.   
She’d have to tell them the story of their relationship, of the biggest secret of their lives.   
Candace struggled with the matter for weeks, unable to think up a credible way how to explain or to justify it, to the point that she even stopped answering her mother’s regular phone calls.   
She couldn’t tell them this. She just couldn’t.   
But then came the next party, her own, and she couldn’t really _not_ invite her parents, even if no one else attended but Ferb and Isabella. And despite the uncomfortable entrance, the mood soon got less tense, and she allowed herself to relax. Until at one point, when telling a story, she realized she was being a bit too affectionate with Phineas, to the point of putting an arm around him and pressing her head against his for something he had done in the story. As usual, she froze and tried to disengage.   
And then her father winked at her.   
And so did her mother.   
Candace blinked, and looked at them in surprise. “How…”   
Her eyes rested on Phineas.   
He shrugged. “I know you wanted us to tell them together, but I could see how it was eating you, so I did it for you.” He smiled. “Turned out they’d already figured it out some time ago.”   
Candace didn’t know whether to be surprised or just be grateful, so she just pulled him close and kissed him full on the lips, knowing she no longer needed to care if anyone was watching.   
Ah, honesty. It was a truly great thing indeed.


	17. Children

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter exploring the bond between Phineas and his kids. His publicly un-acknowledgeable kids. Which is a detail that really can annoy him sometimes.

Even for someone who was supposedly an eternal optimist, Phineas reflected, this morning had been fairly stressful.

They’d been working on the same project for days now back at the company, which was bad enough in itself – he always got bored if he worked on one thing for too long. But then to hear they just needed this one file of notes he’d somehow left behind on his home computer by mistake, and he had to physically go over and send it… Sighing, he unlocked the front door.

The sound of the TV in the living room drew him off target immediately. What the – he was sure he’d turned it off when he left… He walked over, and to his surprise saw two kids sitting there watching.

If there was one thing Phineas couldn’t stand, it was truancy (And lying in general. And zucchini. But that wasn’t the point right now.) He switched off the television and turned to his surprised children. “Xavier Ferdinand and Amanda Louise, you’d better have _very_ good reasons to be here.”

“Why are you home?” Amanda asked.

“Work-related emergency” Phineas replied curtly. “What about you?”

Xavier and Amanda exchanged glances and sighed. “Father-child day” the latter said resignedly.

“The school organized a special day for fathers” Xavier explained. “They would have let us bring our ‘uncle’, except then all other kids might want to bring their uncles and grandpas and so forth as well, and it would defeat the point. So they decided to just let us go home.”

Phineas’ face fell at that, and he sat down next to them. “Doesn’t that ever bother you?” he asked. “I mean, my biological father died before I could ever get to know him, but Dad pretty much took his place in everything. You guys have a biological father, but you’ll never have a public one thanks to a decision your mom and I made years ago. I’m sure you’ve both wished on occasion that your mom _had_ married Jeremy Johnson so you could have been part of a _normal_ family.”

Xavier frowned at that, but Amanda burst out laughing. “You’re kidding, right?” she said chuckling. “What on earth made you think we would want a ‘normal’ family? I mean, yes, days like these are really annoying, but come on. Mr. Johnson is nice and all, but you’re one of the greatest inventors in town and you’re _our_ Dad! It doesn’t really get much better than that!” She frowned. “Although I must admit it’s annoying to only have one set of grandparents to show our report cards to for cash.”

Xavier nudged his sister. “Can’t you stay serious once in a while? Sorry about that, Dad,” he added to Phineas. “But, yeah, neither of us would want to do without you.”

Phineas frowned. “But even if I had been just your uncle instead…”

“It wouldn’t have been the same” Xavier replied. “For one, I don’t think I could have ever become an amateur inventor without your half of my genes.” He caught his father’s look. “I know, carpe diem, summer belongs to everyone… but I really don’t think I could have accomplished it to this extent as a Johnson, and I _like_ being an inventor. So yeah, Amanda’s right. You may not always be able to be our Dad, but when you are, you’re the best I could ever imagine. In fact, that’s why we never told you about today – we didn’t want you to be upset like this, for no reason.”

Phineas smiled, touched, and drew his kids into a hug. “Thanks, guys” he said softly. “I think I needed that. Now, who’s up for playing a father-child game of our own in the backyard?”

Amanda frowned. “But don’t you have to go back to work?”

Phineas’ eyes drew to the clock, and he smiled mischievously. “They can wait” he said. “I’m sure they’ll understand that I had something more important to do.

Being a Dad.”


	18. Birth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this one may get criticism for either being out-of-character for Phineas or unrealistic. I wanted to come up with a situation in which Phineas would really get angry with someone, and indirectly threatening the lives of the ones he loves seemed the best way to go at that. Plus, unruly bureaucrats are a feature of every place and time. Phineas is twenty-eight here, Candace is thirty-two.

They say the days your kids are born, along with your wedding day, are among the happiest days of your life.

To Phineas and Candace Flynn, the day their son Xavier was born was anything but.

Finding a temporary home for Amanda had been the easiest problem to solve: she’d simply been dropped off next door. The Fletchers had indicated in advance that they’d be happy to take care of the girl, not to mention that Isabella also had a pregnant belly for Amanda to stare at, so it was an easy adjustment.

The traffic had been a concern, but thanks to Phineas’ latest hover-conversion there was no problem. Although the contractions were getting worse at an alarming rate, Candace was still doing relatively okay by the time they got inside the hospital, so even Phineas – who had deviated from his usual optimistic nature to fuss over his sister for much of the way there – was beginning to have faith that the process would go smoothly until they found out that there _was_ a problem, namely with the room.

It wasn’t there.

“I’m sorry, I don’t see your reservation and there is no room left available” the nurse at the desk said, for what had to be the third time. “You’re going to have to go to St. Catherine’s.”

“But that’s two state-areas away!” Candace insisted. “And I’m on the verge of giving birth! You’ve got to have some room left over that you can use!”

“Only the emergency room” the woman dully replied. “But that room is reserved for emergencies – which this doesn’t technically count as – and in any case the physician for the area is unavailable since he’s performing a leg surgery. I’m afraid all we have is the couch in the corner.”

Desperate, Candace slumped back on said couch. So here she was. A relatively high-risk pregnancy – she had no delusions about the dangers the genes of the baby could have in them – and she had not even a bed to lie down on. Certainly, lots of mothers had to give birth in even worse conditions, but that didn’t mean she liked the prospect.

She turned to Phineas, who hadn’t said a thing since their arrival. She wasn’t hurt that he hadn’t defended her, just… confused. This was his child as much as it was hers, and she knew he loved her.

So why…

“Excuse me a moment?” he then spoke up. Candace dully nodded, and Phineas walked over to the nurse, had a brief chat with her, and then followed her into a backroom.

Candace knew very well he’d intended for her not to hear, but her nature was too curious to remain seated. She got up, toughed out her next cramp, sneaked over and put her ear against the door.

“You may not be aware of it,” her brother was saying calmly, “but I’m the co-chief director of Flynn-Fletcher Incorporated, creator of all the technological advances spread around the world from Danville over the last years.”

“So?” the nurse asked. “You’re not getting any preferential treatment just because you’re rich and influential…”

Phineas let out something in-between a chuckle and a ‘hmpf’. “Oh, no, that wasn’t my point at all. I just wanted you to understand that unless you start doing everything you can right now to preserve the life of my sister and her child, I can and _will_ annihilate you.”

“Pardon me?”

“As a desk clerk, you may think you have a pretty lousy life right now,” Phineas continued, his voice colder than she’d ever heard from him before. “See how lousy it would be shrunk to the size of an ant! Or teleported into another dimension filled with deadly creatures so gruesome, even the worst nightmare wouldn’t include them! And don’t think I will hesitate an instant to inflict that on the entire hospital staff! Unless you arrange for the room and care we paid for **_right now_** , have no doubt that you will suffer direr consequences than you could even _begin_ to imagine. You can mess with me, but when there is even the slightest chance of it becoming a matter of life and death you do _not_ **MESS! WITH! MY! _SISTER_!** ”

There was a brief period of silence of which Candace took the opportunity to stumble back to her seat, after which Phineas came out as cheerful-looking as always. He was followed by the nurse, who was shaking like a leaf. They got a room and care without any trouble, Xavier was born on schedule, and not a word was spoken about the matter afterwards, for which Candace was grateful. Her heart was bursting at Phineas.

She just didn’t know whether it was bursting with pride, love, or just plain horror.

It wasn’t until that night when, when it was time to go to bed, Phineas shyly asked, “you know I’d never hurt _you_ , right?” that she was able to reply “of course not” and fall into his arms once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... too much? Possibly. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!


	19. Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually one of the earliest drabbles that I wrote. It's not my best one, but I still like it.

He was typing away at his computer again, busy with some project of sorts and somehow looking both dorky and adorable at the same time. She didn’t really want to bother him… but on the other hand, this was a matter which was beginning to seriously bother her, and it had been for a few hours now. She needed the question answered.

“Phineas?”

Her partner stopped typing for a moment, looked up and blinked. “Yeah?”

“Do you ever worry about outliving me?”

There, it was out. The question that had been in her mind for most of the morning. She wasn’t even sure how it got in there, but now that it was in, it seemed impossible to get it out again because it was, after all, a legitimate point. Phineas was four years younger than she was, and there was a definite chance that she would come to pass before he did.

Apparently Phineas didn’t think so, because he shrugged. “You may be older, but you’re female and they tend to live longer” he said astutely. “It’ll probably balance out. Not to mention the age difference is small enough that the death dates wouldn’t be too far apart anyway.”

That was true. When they had started dating, he’d been thirteen and she seventeen. It had seemed like an impossible gap. Now they were forty-three and forty-seven, and it seemed much closer. And yet… “But what if something happens?”

Phineas, who had resumed typing, now really looked up and turned to her. “Is this because of Amanda graduating?”

She nodded. “I know it’s cliché, but – it’s all going so fast, Phineas, and it just makes me wonder…”

“Whether sooner or later, we’re going to wither away and die alone” he crudely described. She shot him a look. “Sorry for the grisly picture. But that’s what you meant, isn’t it?”  
She nodded.

He got up and walked over to her, sitting down next to her on the bed. “First of all – this is a matter for the future. Mom and Dad are both still alive and healthy now, so I don’t think _we_ have to worry just yet. Secondly? Don’t forget everything we have around. Medical protection isn’t an issue with the technology – and money – available to us. Death itself needn’t be an immediate problem what with the blueprints for a time machine in Ferb’s lab being able to mostly prevent us from passing away from non-natural causes. I know it’s coming, and I know I can’t promise you anything. Life is just too uncertain for that. But I can tell you that I’ll do anything in my means to delay it. When we die, I want both of us to be – well, not willing, I can’t imagine ever being willing – but ready, at least, to accept it. And in the meantime, I will _always_ be there for you. And that _is_ a promise, Candace.”

She smiled, and after exchanging a kiss with him she left the room, her heart now more at ease. Soon thereafter, the sound of typing resumed.


	20. Breakfast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just another fluffy drabble (most of them are fluffy, aren't they?). I think I came up with this one when I thought about how walking in moonlight is considered romantic and how it would be one of those things Phineas might not get. Hope you enjoy. It's set shortly after the events of Fear, Loving and Secrets in the Tri-State Area.

“Phineas! Ferb! Candace! Breakfast!”

The sweet scent hit Phineas’ nose a moment after his mother’s cry reached his ears. He threw the customary pillow at his brother. “Do you smell that, Ferb? Mom’s made pancakes!”

Ferb nodded, and the two stepbrothers rapidly got dressed and headed down the stairs. A large stack of pancakes was indeed visible, as was their father. “Hello, boys. Where’s your sister?”

Phineas shrugged. “I don’t know, I didn’t see her. Did you, Ferb?” His brother shook his head.

Linda sighed. “She’s not going to claim she didn’t hear me again, is she?” she sighed. “Can either of you go and wake her? I still have to monitor the pancakes.”

Phineas and Ferb exchanged glances. “Sure, I’ll go” Phineas finally said. He got back up the stairs and entered his sister’s room.

The moment he saw Candace, stirring but still clearly mostly asleep, Phineas got a smile on his face. Candace had told him he was adorable when he was sleeping, but she definitely matched that description as well. He tiptoed up to the bed and looked down at her sleeping form. He was just wondering how to best wake his poor sister and girlfriend up when a thought struck him. Carefully, he leaned forward and slid a hand under Candace’s head. It was enough to make her blink. Then, he gently kissed her on the lips.

His worst fear was that she’d either mumble Jeremy’s name or lash out at him for startling her (the former was probably the worst of the two). Fortunately, neither happened. Candace just blinked and looked up at him. “Phineas?” she murmured groggily. “What are you doing?”

“Mom asked me to wake you up for breakfast” her brother replied. “I figured this might help.”

Candace blinked. “So what, I’m supposed to be Sleeping Beauty now?”

Phineas shrugged. “Well, you were asleep, and you definitely qualify for the beauty part.”

Candace grinned and kissed him back. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He sat down at the foot end of the bed. “Did you sleep well?”

Candace nodded. “You know, I actually dreamed about you.”

Phineas smiled. “Really! Nothing bad, I hope?”                        

His sister shook her head. “The opposite, actually. We were walking around Danville Park at night, with the moon just narrowly lighting our path from behind the clouds…”

“Didn’t we have flashlights?”

Candace gave him a look. “Seriously, Phineas?”

“Just joking” he assured her. “I’m not that clueless about romance. With tempered light, people outside aren’t able to see as far and walk as freely as they normally do, forcing them to stick close to each other and providing the circumstances for romance. Duh.” He pensively stared ahead. “Maybe that’s an idea for today’s project? Creating an artificial solar eclipse?”

Candace frowned. “Is that even possible?”

“Of course it is! All we have to do is create an object large enough to blot out the sun at the right angle and distance… propel it into outer space… shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

“Phineas! Candace!”

“But we should probably eat our breakfast first.”

“Fair enough.” Candace got off the bed, giving her brother a weird look when he gentlemanly tried to give her a hand and making him doubt Isabella’s advice about how romantic escorting a girl could be. He’d have to talk to her about that later. For the time being, they got down the stairs where they were confronted by their impatient mother.

“The pancakes almost cooled off” she muttered. “Couldn’t get up again, Candace?”

Her daughter yawned. “I can’t help it my bed is so soft.”

“I suppose you can’t.” Linda turned to Phineas. “You didn’t have to do anything radical to wake her up, did you?”

That was too much to rein in early in the morning. The siblings glanced at each other and then Candace burst out giggling, and Phineas couldn’t help himself and joined in on the laughter, earning them looks from their parents. “Should we be asking them what’s going on here?” Lawrence wondered.

Ferb leaned closer towards him. “Trust me, father, you probably don’t want to know.”


	21. Lunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another drabble, featuring a 'new' character - Jonathan Johnson! Jeremy and Vanessa's kid, and Amanda's boyfriend. I know it must sound implausible but I swear that I didn't originally intend to have Phineas' son end up with Isabella's daughter and Jeremy's son with Candace's daughter, it just happened that way. I actually paired up Xavier and Angie (Angela Fletcher, Ferb and Izzy's elder daughter) first, for your information. As for Jonathan, he's a relatively bland character (much like his father) but he's nice and stable (and quite familiar with Danville craziness) and a decent match for Amanda. 
> 
> Now that I'm rereading this drabble I'm actually questioning some of the silliness in here too, but oh well. I liked it. Hope you do too.

There are a few things in a new romantic relationship that generally can’t be avoided. One of those things, as Jonathan Johnson discovered to his dismay, was meeting the parents.

Of course it wasn’t really much of a first meeting. Candace Flynn had been his father’s first girlfriend and a friend of his mother’s, and only by living under a rock would he have been able to avoid knowing about Danville’s most famous son. Not to mention that he’d had to listen to hours and hours of his grandfather talking about his one-time nemesis, Perry the Platypus, who had remained the Flynn-Fletcher family pet until this very day. In fact, as Jonathan noticed to his own amusement, he was less awestruck by meeting the great Phineas Flynn than by meeting his pet platypus. Maybe Perry was a tired old mammal now who only glimpsed up from his basket to give him a brief smile before sleeping on, but even so he remained the greatest crime fighter the OWCA had ever known.

One of the first things Candace said to him took his mind off that. “Amanda has told you about us, hasn’t she?” she said, giving her daughter a glare that indicated frustration at her openness.

Jonathan knew what she was talking about right away. “Yes she has, Mrs. Flynn.”

That was the last word they spent on that, and Jonathan tried to forget about it. He was here for Amanda, after all, so in theory how her parents related to each other didn’t concern him. Even so, he caught himself being suspicious after he and Xavier were seated on both sides of Amanda at the dinner table (Jonathan to her right, Xavier to her left) and that suspicion didn’t end until he noticed no signs of jealousy on Amanda’s brother’s face all night. It was incredibly frustrating – he was sure it didn’t occur to the average boyfriend to worry whether his girlfriend’s brother was going to take her away from him.

As lunch got underway, Jonathan tried to engage in conversation with his possible eventual in-laws. “What were you planning after lunch?” he asked.

Phineas shrugged. “That’s up to you, you’re our guest. But I thought maybe we could play some kind of family game.”

“Can we play Skiddley Whiffers?” Xavier asked.

Candace grinned. “Are you that eager to get clobbered again?”

Xavier met her grin with one of his own. “Don’t count on that, Mom. I’ve practiced a lot lately.”

“Ha! Do you really think you can beat me? Mark my words, son – tonight you’re going to go down! Down, down, -”

“I think the message is clear, Candace” Phineas gently cut her off.

Candace hesitated, but eventually nodded. “I guess so.” There was an awkward silence before she turned to Jonathan. “So, how have your parents been doing lately?”

Jonathan shrugged. “They’re doing pretty well for themselves, I guess. Healthy, well-off, stable… everything’s normal.”

“I see.” Amanda’s mother left it at that, and Jonathan resumed eating his food in silence, while Xavier and Amanda were bantering away about something. After a few moments however, he noticed his prospective mother-in-law was still staring at him and Amanda, her face set in the same expression, enough to make him blush. Which, as it turned out, was just enough to attract Phineas’ attention, and he confusedly turned to his sister. “Candace?”

Candace abruptly leaned back into her chair, blinking innocently. “What?”

Phineas sighed. “Honey, you know what I always say. Anything you can discuss with the voices in your head, you can discuss with us too.”

Candace blushed. “I was just a little paranoid, I guess. I mean, I left Jeremy because he was too normal for me to be with, and I don’t want Amanda to have to go through the same thing. Maybe we should have them come over every week until we’re sure their relationship is going to last?”

“Mom!” Amanda groaned. She turned to Jonathan and started whispering. “I swear, Mom can be so embarrassing sometimes…”

“What was that, Amanda?” Candace said.

Amanda blinked. “Nothi-AGH!”

Jonathan honestly didn’t know what to make of the sight of two robot arms shooting out of the wall and beginning to tickle his poor girlfriend’s ribs, making her dissolve into a fit of laughter. Before he could do something about it, though, the arms shut off, which turned out to have been Phineas’ doing. “You can’t really blame Amanda for calling you embarrassing when you’ve said the same about Mom multiple times back in the day.”

Candace groaned. “Aren’t you supposed to back me up?”

“Hey, on parenting I’m with you every step of the way” Phineas replied. “Does that mean I always have to agree with you, too?”

“Yes. Yes it does.”

Phineas wanted to say something to that, but was interrupted as robot arms shot out of the wall behind them and started tickling Candace. “Amanda!” she sputtered, scrambling around to find something to retaliate. Unable to find the robot remote control, she instead seized upon the pudding and threw it at Amanda’s face.

“Hey, I thought you said we weren’t supposed to throw food across the table?” Amanda exclaimed, exasperated. “Hmm, chocolate.”

“What were you going to do about it?” Candace teased.

“Well, this of course” Amanda replied, throwing her own pudding right back at her mother.

And then they went nuts.

Jonathan wasn’t even sure how Xavier and Phineas got involved – he believed Phineas tried to mediate and accidentally got hit with a washcloth, after which the food fight was turned into one of parents versus children – but the fact was that all four other occupants of the table were engaged in a scuffle and he felt more awkward than he’d ever felt and tried not to make himself noticed. At that point, he noticed a tug at his pants. Looking down, he saw Perry holding up a note. _Most of Amanda’s boyfriends would have ran by this point._

Jonathan smiled wryly. “Yeah, this is definitely weird” he admitted. “And sometimes I do think that Amanda and her family are a little crazy.”

He smirked.

“But then I think about introducing her to Grandpa Doofenshmirtz one day and realize she really hasn’t seen nothing yet.”


	22. Dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This drabble is about Phineas and Candace going out for dinner. Actually it's about a lot more than that. I think the one thing I liked from Act Your Age (apart from Ferb and Vanessa to a certain extent, Perry and Doofenshmirtz's subplot, the idea of Candace being a lawyer... actually, even in an episode that I disliked so much there were still things that I enjoyed. Tells you how good a show PnF is) was Isabella's Mom having a restaurant (I'm not really sure if that's from AYA originally, but I remember it as being from AYA) so I'm going to use it here and elsewhere. Hope you enjoy the drabble. Also, don't read too much into the last scene. This story is primarily meant for humor, not for shipping purposes.

Living together with her brother was something Candace had expected to present challenges. She was prepared for that, and ready to face them head-on. But she had definitely not anticipated what wound up being the greatest challenge of them all. 

Cooking dinner. 

When living on her own, however briefly, ordering out and happening to come over at the Flynn-Fletcher home right at dinner time had sufficed, but now that they were together Candace had resolved to finally confront the matter. It had, at least today, not been a great success (even if she was certain it had been Phineas' unhelpful advice rather than her own clumsiness which had blown up the stove). 

Eating out therefore was the only option, and after Candace had categorically rejected Paul Bunyan's as invoking too many awkward memories, Phineas had suggested the Garcia-Shapiro restaurant instead. They'd never been there before as a couple, after all, and it did serve great food. Candace had agreed.

Big mistake. 

The restaurant was crowded that night, so Vivian ushered them to an already-occupied table, curiously enough by Phineas' old classmate, Adyson Sweetwater. And where ordinarily that might have been a fun reunion, the looks Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro was giving Phineas and Adyson and the ones Adyson gave Phineas soon made Candace remember and realize two things. 

One, that after Isabella had gotten together with Ferb, the people in Danville had come to assume Phineas was still single. 

Two, that Adyson was inclined to take advantage of that fact for herself. 

The next minutes, Candace was forced to watch Adyson talk and flirt with her brother without being able to think of anything that would cut off those efforts without giving away that said brother was also her boyfriend. Coming up with nothing, she finally excused herself and jogged over to Isabella at the bar. 

"Are you okay?" was the first thing her friend asked. "You look uncomfortable." 

Candace frowned. "What gave it away?" 

"You're squinting again." Isabella smirked. "What's the problem?" 

Wordlessly, Candace pointed at their table. Isabella's eyes widened as she noticed what Adyson was up to. "Why isn't he doing anything about that?" 

Candace sighed. "Why do you think?" 

Isabella stared at her. "You're kidding."

"Wish I was." 

"You've been together for what, five years now, and he's still oblivious to romance?" 

"Yup" Candace muttered. "Well, I guess she hasn't been all that overt in her affections yet, so I could understand..."

"Candace, she just put an arm around his shoulder." 

"Scratch that, then." 

Isabella gave her a sympathetic look. "Isn't there something you can do?" 

Candace shrugged. "I could try to feign an illness and get him to leave with me again, except I actually like it here and we've already paid for our meals." Isabella gave her a look. “Hey, starting family here. We’ve got to be thrifty.” She sighed. “But I just can’t think of anything that’ll make her go away. I… I don’t want to beat around the bush, I just want to tell her that Phineas is already taken without actually having to do that because I can’t do that and…” She sighed.

To her surprise, Isabella began to smile. “I think I could help you with your problem” she said. “Why don’t you go back to your table and try to keep Adyson under control. I’ll be with you shortly.”

Candace looked at her friend with a wary expression in her eyes, but eventually shrugged and indeed headed back to her table. To her credit, Adyson relented a bit after she noticed Candace had shown up, but the way she was talking to Phineas made clear she was still pursuing him strongly. From the look on his face, even Phineas himself was getting a hint by now.

When Adyson at last even put a hand on Phineas’ knee Candace was on the verge of calling her out, need to remain inconspicuous or not, but Isabella beat her to the punch. She stormed to the table in a mock-angry fashion. “What the hell are you doing to my boyfriend?”

Adyson blinked, while Phineas confusedly glanced between the two of them. “What do you mean, ‘boyfriend’? Aren’t you with Ferb now?”

“We broke up a few weeks ago” Isabella said. “Now are you going to move over, Addy, or am I going to have to invoke the old Fireside Girl Code? It’s still valid, you know.”

Adyson stared at her. “Prove it.”

“What?”

“Come on, you’re not stupid. Prove Phineas is really your boyfriend.”

Isabella hesitantly looked at Phineas, whose face was unreadable, then made up her mind. She nodded, leaned forward and kissed him.

Needless to say, Adyson was convinced by that show, made some kind of excuse and uncomfortably got up and left. Isabella smiled smugly. “You know, I have always wondered what that would have been like” she mused. “Can I get you anything else?”

Phineas blinked. “…nah. We’re good.”

Isabella nodded, and headed off into the kitchen. Phineas and Candace were left staring at each other over their half-filled plates.

 “Candace?”

“Yeah?”

“We really should have gone to Paul Bunyan’s.”

“Agreed.”


	23. Food

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reading The Little Things That Changed is definitely recommended for this drabble, as you can consider this a direct sequel. Its primary purpose is to be sweet and fluffy and 'aww' inspiring, and I hope it'll succeed in that for you - it certainly did for me. Also, the last scene is awkward because although a conversation fading into nothing as the camera moves out is a technique that works very well on film - in text, not so much. But I had to put a stop to the tale somewhere before it would start to drag itself out.

Candace had always told him that it would be too much to expect that nothing would change. She had been right.

It wasn’t that Amanda was avoiding him after the reveal about their past. In that sense, she treated him much the same as she had before. But the way she looked at him was different, warier, and slightly more uncomfortable. It was something Phineas knew they had to get over, so one afternoon a week after their uncomfortable conversation in the attic he invited Amanda to come with him to get ice cream after school. She had agreed – even if she wasn’t particularly feeling up to conversation, Amanda Flynn never turned ice cream down – but she remained quiet on their walk to the stand in the park. When they finally sat down at a nearby table, Phineas looked his daughter in the eyes.

“I don’t get what’s wrong, Amanda” he said softly. “Are you still worried about having to date Xavier?”

Amanda shook her head, chuckling. “Nah, that’s not it. It’s… different.”

“Then what is it?” he insisted, putting a hand over hers. “Come on, you can tell me, can’t you?”

The girl looked up, appeared to be weighing the pros and cons, and finally nodded. “I’m sorry I’ve been shutting you out, Uncle Phineas, it’s just…” She sighed. “For years, I didn’t know any better than that you were my mother’s brother and that my father had disappeared somewhere. I dreamed about meeting him one day, asking him all these questions about his life, discovering his mysterious past… that’s what I’d always envisioned him as, a mysterious stranger that I would one day track down. And now I’m forced to confront the fact that the uncle whom I’ve been living with my entire life was really my father, and it’s not that it feels bad per se, it’s just not the same.”

Phineas nodded. “I understand, Mandy. Hearing the truth must have been quite a shock.” He sighed. “To be honest, it’s felt weird for me too. All this time I’d gotten used to thinking of you as my niece, and now I can finally be open about everything. It’s so strange.”

His daughter frowned. “Were you guys ever planning on telling us?”

Phineas shrugged. “If it had been up to me, I would have taken you and Xavier aside from the moment you could talk and explained everything. But that’s me. I’ve never liked withholding things from other people. Your Mom, on the other hand… well, you know how paranoid she can be. She probably would have postponed this moment for as long as possible.” He smiled faintly. “I do think she too feels happier now that we can be open with you, at last. Poor Candace always stresses out over so many things…”

Amanda sighed. “I – look, Uncle Phineas, if you really love Mom I’m not going to bother you about that. It’s just so… so strange, so unlike what I was expecting. You’re my goofy uncle. Or at least, that’s who you’ve always been to me.”

Phineas smiled. “Well, then why don’t we forget about that for a while?”

Amanda blinked. “What?”

“Let’s just pretend for a moment that I’m the Dad you’d been looking for. I’m a random stranger you found through perusing old archives or something. So, daughter of mine that I’ve just met, tell me about your life. How have the past eleven years gone?”

The girl sighed. “Uncle Phineas…”

“I do not know your uncle Phineas. Well, I suppose I met him once back when I was dating your mother. Friendly chap.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get the ice cream, okay?”

“ _That_ I can do” Phineas replied. “What’s your favorite flavor, which I don’t know because I haven’t met you before?”

“Strawberry.”

“Gotcha!” Phineas walked off to the stand and returned a few minutes later with two cones of ice cream. Amanda took hers and gave her uncle a bemused smile. “Your stint already failed.”

“What do you mean?”

Amanda pointed at her cone. “You removed my sprinkles, like you always do. How could you have known I didn’t like them if you only just met me?”

Phineas’ face fell. “I was so close.”

His daughter sighed. “Look, you don’t have to pretend to be someone else, okay? You’re you. I can deal with that. It’s just…” She shook her head. “The reason I wanted a Dad so badly is because he wouldn’t be a Flynn. No offense to this family, you’re the greatest people I know, but I wanted an end to all that pressure to meet your standards. Everyone talks about me as being just your niece or even mom’s daughter, and they don’t think there’s anything more to me than that. Just a link to some famous people. But I’m not an inventor, and I’m not a lawyer either. I… I want to get a chance to be myself, and to be appreciated for being myself.”

Phineas blinked. “Oh, Mandy…” He reached out over the table and drew his niece into a hug. “You never have to worry about following into our footsteps. Whatever you want to do, we’ll help you. And if anyone says or implies that you have to be just like us to get any respect, just ignore them. They’re stupid.”

Amanda smiled. “Thanks, uncle Phin – I mean thanks, Dad.”

Phineas sank back into his chair. “You have no idea how much you saying that means to me, Amanda. You’re my daughter. I – I love you so much. I just wish that we could have told you sooner. That Candace and I could have provided you with a normal family.”

The eight-year-old stared up at him. “Hey, just because the Flynns can be a little weird sometimes doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them. Uncle Phineas, I might not have been expecting to have you as a Dad, but you’re great. It’ll take some time before I can ever consider you as one, but I’ll try. I’m just relieved that at least I have finally met my father. Who cares that I’ve known him all along? I’ll get over that.”  


Phineas smiled. “Thanks.” He took a small bite from his ice cream. “You know, this father-daughter thing is nice. We should do that more often.”  


Amanda pondered that. “Yeah, that sounds cool. Same thing next week?”  


“Same thing next week” Phineas affirmed. “Until we’ve both fully come to terms with who we really are.” He grinned. “Now how’s your ice cream?”  


“It’s pretty good. I think I prefer the vendor that comes by Maple Drive, though.”  


“Hey, we can go there next time.”  


“Wait, so that means ice cream every week from now on?”  


“I don’t see why not.”


	24. Drink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the last of the drabbles, at least for now. It's another silly one (most of the drabbles are/will be either silly or fluffy, with relatively few dark ones because it's Phindace and they're just not suited very well to darkness), and I hope that you enjoy it. It takes place in the period when Phineas and Candace are living together but Candace hasn't gotten pregnant with Amanda yet. Please read and review!

 “You’ve invented _what_ now?”

Candace knew her brother was practical-minded. She also knew that inventing something for commerce was a new experience to him and that she maybe shouldn’t have expected the usual miracle. But it was one thing to know all that and another to see him so excited over this.

“It’s a self-sucking straw!” Phineas exclaimed grinning, proving that she had heard him right the first time. “It works like… well, the purpose is obvious from the name, but it pushes the juice or whatever you’re drinking up from the carton and into your mouth. It’s perfect for old people who can’t exert much energy with their lungs anymore, or for people who simply don’t like to bother so much. And don’t worry, we made sure you can control your intake by twisting this dial at the bottom, or simply turn it off altogether. The dials are rather small, though, even if that’s unavoidable with something as small as a straw – but remember, we are still in the testing phase.”

“O-kay” Candace eventually replied. “So… I take it this is what you’ve been working on in your lab over the past weeks?”

Phineas blinked. “Oh, no, the past weeks we’ve been planning Flynn-Fletcher Inc as a whole. We came up with the straw this afternoon.” Of course. “And now, it’s ready for testing!”

Candace curiously took one of the straws her boyfriend was holding and examined it at all angles. “And you really think this is going to be a success?”

Phineas shrugged. “Well, maybe it’s not the most groundbreaking project we could come up with… but it’s a start! I mean, we managed to popularize Perry the Inaction Platypus back in the day, right?”

He had a point there. It was surprising what kind of dumb stuff people were actually willing to buy when you got down to it. Candace nodded. “Okay, so what are we going to do?”

Phineas smiled and led her into the kitchen, where he and Ferb had apparently set up a whole test – there were plastic cups on the table, elaborate forms to fill in judging every aspect of the experience, lab coats they were supposed to wear, and so the list went on. It was all pretty silly and small for Phineas and Ferb standards, but it still nagged at her that they’d done all this in what was supposed to be her kitchen too. She could imagine the squabbles she and Phineas would have in the future if she’d return home one day to see her kitchen turned into a laboratory.

But that was long off. She took her orange juice and, after watching Phineas do it for his own drink, activated the straw. It… it worked. She didn’t have to do anything but keep her mouth open as fresh orange juice poured in. She fiddled a little with the dial and turned it up to maximum, leaving her at the bottom of her cup before she knew it. Giving her brother a teasing smile, she put her straw in his drink instead and started drinking. Hey, it was his own fault for being such a slowpoke…

…and then the straws started sucking each other.

Really, she should have seen it coming. It was a movie cliché, not to mention the combined sucking powers of the straws would obviously make them attract each other. Still, it came as a surprise to Candace when she found herself face to face with her equally surprised brother, just a few inches apart but being held back by the set of straws…

Oh, heck. She’d come this far. She took out the straws and kissed him.

When they broke the kiss, Phineas smiled. “Does that mean you liked it?”

“It’s functional” Candace admitted. “But I think you can be better. How about we agree on this – you’re getting a kiss for every good project you finish?”

“…Ferb, I know what else we’re gonna do today!”

Candace grinned. Ah, yes. Her life was definitely silly sometimes.

But silliness was hardly a bad thing when it originated in one Phineas Flynn.   



	25. Winter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A relatively short drabble, because it was really about time to update this. Just more fluffiness, set in winter because that season is best equipped to handle fluff.

Amanda looked up and down the yard. She had to select a place that was just right, with enough snow as a foundation to build on, an easily visible spot where the snowman would hopefully get a little shelter as well. It would be a shame if it melted so soon.

There. That was the best spot.

The girl rolled the ball into position. It was already quite a large mass of snow, getting up to the middle of her chest. It would be difficult to get to the top later…

“Need a hand?”

Amanda turned around to see her father kneel down next to her. Or at least, the man who was her father in private and her uncle in public – it had been only a few months ago that her parents had become less weary on her using the title for Phineas, having previously been too afraid that she’d slip up.

“I can do it by myself, you know” she said confidently.

“I don’t doubt that” Phineas replied. “But your Uncle Ferb and I could probably have built most of our projects by ourselves as well, and we always enjoyed it when other kids came over and helped us play.”

“Fair enough.” Amanda moved over to give him room, and soon they were both pushing the snow ball into place.

“Why do you want to make a snowman anyway?” Phineas inquired. “You never seemed so… obsessed with it before.”

Amanda turned to him. “I’m eleven years old now, Dad. I’m going to go to high school soon. This might be one of the last chances I get to do this.”

Phineas sighed. “Haven’t your Mom and I _always_ told you to seize the day and do what you liked no matter what age you are? If you think eleven is nearly too old to build a snowman, then what about me? You know how old I am, don’t you?”

Amanda nodded warily. “You’re thirty-six, Dad. But that’s different.”

“How so?”

“It just is.”

Phineas nodded, and to her relief didn’t press the matter. Together, they put the ball in place and then went off to get another.

Creating the snowman wound up taking half an hour, because her father turned out to be something of a perfectionist at it. The balls would have to be precisely round, no exception, and they would have to have a certain calculated size. After which it turned out the top of the snowman was just too high to modify anymore, even when she was standing on her father’s shoulders, so they wound up having to make the snowman smaller, with Phineas complaining that back in the day, they would have just invented or rented a crane to make the biggest snowman ever.

But they had fun this way as well, and that was what counted. It wasn’t too often that she got to spend time like this with her Dad anymore. He was often too busy with work, and she was getting a busier life of her own… well, she really felt that she had to seize the opportunity while she still could. By the time the snowman was finished, both of them were cold and exhausted, but with the huge grin on her father’s face Amanda couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Who’s up for some hot chocolate?” Candace asked, coming down the driveway. “And… wow, nice snowman. Who made it?”

“Thanks, honey” Phineas replied, taking the cups from her and handing one to Amanda as well. “I helped a little, but I’d say Amanda did most of the work.” He put an arm around her at that, and she let him.

“Good job.” Her mother crouched down next to them in the snow. “You know, I love the winter season. It always reminds me of our honeymoon.”

“Oh, right” Phineas said chuckling. “We told you about that, didn’t we? How we had a snowball fight at the airport?” Amanda nodded. “I can’t believe that’s twelve years ago now. Amanda wasn’t even born yet.”

“Time flies” Candace replied. “I can remember last Christmas like it was yesterday, and now it’s that time of the year again. It certainly looks magical, doesn’t it?”

“Definitely” Phineas agreed, letting go of Amanda and cuddling up close to her. “Maybe next year, we should invent something to ensure we always have a white Christmas.”

“Oh, I’d like that. Gives me the chance to snuggle up to you for warmth.”

“You know you can do that any time of the year, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s a little redundant in the summer. It would feel more like an excuse then.”

“Fair enough. Maybe we could make S’Winter again for that?”

“Phineas, that sounds over-the-top, farfetched and absurd. Basically, a great idea.”

“Consider that settled then.”

Amanda got up and walked back to the house, watching her parents from a distance. They didn’t even notice her, too caught up in each other – even if she had no doubt they would try to include her in the conversation if she spoke up. But for now, she’d let them have this moment together.

Ah, winter break. The one time above all others when they could truly be a family.


	26. Spring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it is a bit of a stretch to link the content of this drabble to the prompt 'spring', but it still broadly works, and I wanted to describe Amanda's birth and the shift in mindset that would require for Phineas.

Carpe diem.

Seize the day.

If any words could be described as the arc words of Phineas Flynn’s young life, it would be those. That unbridled optimism and joy, the desire for freedom and fun that drove him to seize every single day of his youth, the springtime of his life. To those who knew him, it was clear that there was nothing that ever stopped him from doing what he wanted to, be it financial concerns, the laws of physics, lack of ambition or motivation, or any other responsibilities in life.

In retrospect, the transition into adulthood was always going to be a big step. And nothing marked that clearer than when Candace became pregnant… with _his_ child.

The pregnancy started normally enough considering the circumstances, what with Candace being the worrywart and Phineas backing her up every step of the way. It was only natural, to a certain extent. Candace was carrying the baby. Candace was publicly acknowledged to be the parent, and was the one primarily responsible for explaining where the father had gone. Candace was going to be the child’s mother, whereas Phineas’ presence in her life would be explained as mere sibling cohabitation.

It remained that way until the day of the actual delivery, the last day of spring. Phineas had, of course, accompanied his sister to the delivery room, and he clutched her hand for much of the ordeal, Ferb only occasionally relieving him so that his brother could flex his fingers. The delivery wasn’t an easy one, and even as Phineas remained outwardly calm a sliver of fear had slipped up on him. What if this did not go well? What if they had wrongly underestimated the genetic issues, or there was another natural reason that would complicate the delivery?

In the end, it all went well, and the child was born. The nurse pressed the girl – Amanda – into Candace’s arms, and Phineas just watched from a distance, an odd sensation of pride welling up at seeing his sister and her daughter... well, _their_ daughter, really. (It was always hard to remember that for some reason.) A child. Candace’s child. He could already imagine how he was going to make her youth the best youth ever – he could build a box for Amanda, with robotic pluche animals, oh, and maybe he could even build something into Ducky Momo to make it talk so that little Mandy would never have to be alone! Candace likely wouldn’t approve of that, though… maybe they could capture a real-life duck and give it to Amanda as a pet? Sure, they had Perry, but Perry was getting a little slower these days and it would be unfair for Amanda to constantly have to borrow her mother and uncles’ pet and not having one of their own. Maybe he could build a zoo in the backyard. They never had a zoo before, had they? Oh, and he could add waterfalls, and rhinos and crocodiles like lil’ Crikey, and… and…

And then Candace spoke up, asking him to feed the new baby for the first time. And although Phineas knew it was supposed to be a happy moment and his sister had meant it as a happy moment, his own reaction was paralysis.

Looking at the child, it occurred to him for the first time that this might be how it was going to go from now on. Inventing, and then being interrupted to feed or tend to Amanda. It meant being responsible to an extent he’d never been before, and that had not fully occurred to him until then. The spring of his life, when he had been able to do whatever he wanted in the way he wanted to do it, was definitely over... and he had no idea what changes to his life were in store before him. And truth be told, it frightened him. 

He wasn’t ready. He didn’t feel ready. He opened his mouth to explain, but nothing but stammering came out. Finally, he turned around and ran, practically fleeing the room into the hallway and only coming to a halt before the window of the large central hospital room opposite Candace's chamber. He felt like a coward. And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to go back.

He had stood there for a few minutes, unable to move, until he heard the distinct sound of his brother showing up. Guilt overcame him. Right here, he’d abandoned their sister in her hour of need. He braced himself for Ferb physically chewing him out – and yet, he still didn’t move.

But of course Ferb didn’t do that. He did give Phineas a knowing look, but aside from that all that he did was putting his arm on his brother’s shoulder.

Phineas eventually sighed. “I thought I was ready, Ferb” he muttered. “Actually, I hadn’t even given much thought to whether I was ready or not, but I wasn’t. And now Candace is paying the price for it.”

“Well, at least you’ve diagnosed the problem” another voice said behind them. “Although she did take it a lot better than she could have – than I would have, to be honest.”

“Then you should count yourself lucky you married Ferb and not me” Phineas muttered.

Isabella walked up to them and slung an arm around Phineas’ shoulder. “Bitterness isn’t your style, Phineas” she said, chipper. “Nor is moping. Or not being up for something like this. Come on, Phin. You’ve conquered time and space in so many different ways, you can _do_ this.”

“It’s not just a matter of whether I can feed a child or not, but… what it stands for, I suppose” Phineas replied. “Izzy, my whole life I’ve been able to do what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. Just not being able to invent made me go crazy. If I’m going to have to be a parent, with all that structure, I… I honestly wonder how long I’ll be able to stay sane.”

Isabella sighed. “Phineas, you _knew_ this was going to be difficult, didn’t you?”

“Of course… I guess” Phineas replied. “But knowing something and realizing it, feeling it, accepting it… those are entirely different things.”

“Well, that’s one thing you and your sister have in common” Isabella pointed out.

Phineas snorted. “And you don’t?”

“I guess” Isabella conceded. “I think I just have a harder time accepting it.”

Phineas blinked. “Accepting your own non-acceptance? Wow. That’s deep.”

“I know, right?”

Ferb put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “This may turn out to be difficult, Phineas. But for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve never run away from a challenge. You’ve faced every problem head-on, and you’ve succeeded. Brother, you will be fine.”

It felt as if a giant weight fell off Phineas’ chest, and he hugged Ferb. Then, he made his way back to the room. Candace was looking out at him from the moment he entered and he looked back, an embarrassed blush coming to his face.

“I’m sorry, sis” he said. “I really freaked out back there.”

Candace shook her head and smiled wryly. “It’s okay. Good to have a reminder that even you aren’t infallible.”

Phineas sighed. “I can’t believe it would be something as simple as this that would do me in. And on the day your – _our_ child is born, no less. You’ve got to be so disappointed.”

Candace gave him a gentle smile. “Phineas… I want to be honest with you. I expected that sooner or later, you would have to deal with not being able to invent all the time. The question is what you do with it now. I know it’s a big change, but I hope your daughter and I are worth it.”

Phineas walked over to the bed and embraced her. “Of course you are. I… I just need to really realize it. Have you fed her yet?”

Candace shook her head. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“I see.” Phineas lifted the girl out of her basket, and at that moment his previous doubts disappeared. He wanted to take care of her. To be responsible for her. She was amazing and beautiful, and though she’d never quite be his, he would do anything for her.

It was the last day of spring. In more ways than one.

But Phineas Flynn would always make the most of summer.


	27. Summer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rather self-explanatory drabble, I think. Not the best.

_There’s a hundred and four days of summer vacation,_  
_before school comes along just to end it_  
_so the annual problem for our generation  
_ _is findin’ a good way to spend it…_

Candace smiled at the words of the song on the radio. They took her back to the days of her youth, the days of her endless busting failures. No wonder – the song had been written by her brothers after all. And yet…

She turned to Phineas, who was talking to Ferb in one of those unusual discussions where he was the only one to speak but it was nevertheless clear that Ferb had said all he needed to say. “Phineas?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever think about how… accurate this song still is?”

Phineas looked out at the yard, showing he’d gotten her line of reasoning. “Huh” he muttered. “No, I hadn’t ever really thought of that. But you’re right – when you look at what they do…”

‘They’, of course, were their children – hers and Phineas’, and Ferb and Isabella’s. On Xavier’s suggestion, they were currently building bumper cars that could travel through five dimensions, which was already a strangely familiar idea. But that wasn’t all – the entire concept of the kids’ activities was the same. They were trying to make the most of summer.

“Xavier comes up with most of the ideas” she ticked off. “Fred helps him build everything, while the others participate. And I think Angie’s got a bit of a crush on Xavier – although it looks like he’s a lot less blind about that than his father was.”

“Sure, go bash me in front of our friends” Phineas grumbled, although she could see in his eyes that he was hardly angry. “That’s not very mature, Candace.”

“Not to mention” Isabella remarked, coming to Phineas’ aid – which was only to be expected, since the matter also involved her – “who would be playing your role in that comparison, Candace? As far as I know, Amanda doesn’t run up to you in a mad scheme to bust her brother every once in a while.”

Now it was Candace’s turn to blush. “I – I had my reasons” she muttered. “What you guys were doing looked really dangerous at the time – much more so than it is now, with modern safety techniques. And I did eventually come around.”

“Sure,” Isabella replied, “but you seemed to be awfully selective in _when_ to come around. I remember you being a lot less eager to bust whenever Jeremy was involved.”

Before she could stammer any response to that, Phineas put a hand on her shoulder. “Let Isabella talk” he said. “I’m not blaming you for anything, you know that.”

“Sure, Phineas” Isabella said good-naturedly. “Take her side, as always.”

As she and Phineas started bickering, Candace looked out at the playground. Certainly, there were similarities between their generations, but there were so many differences that…

“Hey Amanda, have you seen Perry?”

On the other hand, summer in Danville would never change.


	28. Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have all that much to say about this one, aside from the fact that it might not be about what you'd associate with the word 'Fall'.

Something had fallen.  


The loud thud that Candace woke up from made that clear enough. She was briefly disorientated, but glancing aside and seeing Phineas was missing was enough for her to put two and two together.  


She reflected on her options. Frankly, by now she’d had enough of these little excursions in the middle of the night and her body was telling her that she’d be right asleep again if she stayed here. And yet, she couldn’t do it. She could not leave her brother alone in his time of need.

She got off the bed and carefully walked into the hallway. It was insanely difficult just to keep her eyes open for five seconds straight, but she had to try, for Phineas’ sake.

Her brother wasn’t in the hallway. He wasn’t slumped over the water closet in the bathroom either, or sleeping in his ‘own’ bed (she definitely would’ve thought that to be a little hurtful if he had been there). So she decided to head down the stairs, and as she’d come to fear, it was there that she found him.

As Phineas was scatterbrained enough to forget taking a break from his inventions for boring stuff like, you know, eating regularly, and Candace couldn’t always be bothered to ground him in the real world, he occasionally woke up in the middle of the night with the urge to grab a quick snack. There would have been nothing wrong with him doing that tonight, if not for him being too drowsy to keep his eyes open for longer than absolutely necessary as well. As such, he’d gone down the stairs without falling, but only with great difficulty, and when he had gotten down the stairs and had a moment to relax and shut his eyes he’d promptly tripped over a box the kids had used to play indoor camping with the day before.

Sighing, Candace knelt down next to her partner of whatever-odd years. After making sure he was physically okay, she proceeded to shake him awake. After going through some difficulty to make that happen, she got Phineas to drowsily look up at her. “What… what happened?” he murmured, his voice slurred and little more than a whisper.

“You tripped over the box” Candace murmured back. “And you… well, it looks like you fell right back asleep.”

Phineas nodded, almost dozing off again until a nudge in his side returned him to the living. “Oh.” There was a silence that lasted so long that she almost thought he’d fallen back asleep anyway, and then he muttered: “Can you help me get up?”

Candace would’ve liked to say that no, she had enough trouble standing up just by herself. Instead she took a deep breath and pulled at her brother’s arm. She almost yanked it out of its socket but succeeded in pulling Phineas back on his feet. He strongly leaned on her as she began to stagger forwards.

This situation could not have gone well in any scenario, but the box still being there didn’t help.

The siblings fell forwards, Candace landing on her chest and being spared a serious headache by her chin landing on the side of Phineas’ chest. She had no idea how he’d even landed on his back in the first place – it was like he was a reverse cat.

She heard her brother’s steady breathing. “Phineas?”

“Hmm?”

“You okay?”  


“Hmm-hmm.”

There was a silence, one in which Candace felt adrenaline fade and exhaustion take over again. She moved her head so it was directly above his heart. “So, wanna just… stay here?”

“Fine by me.” He paused. “Candace… I… you.”

“You too.”

It was… good, just laying there on the floor, relaxing against each other. Candace even thought it was heartwarming when they woke up that morning to see their kids had draped a blanket over them. But the sore limbs they got from it would ensure that Phineas Flynn never went for a midnight snack raid again.


	29. Passing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A more melancholic drabble.

Sometimes, even Phineas Flynn would want to get away from the crowd.

It was unusual, as anyone who knew him would agree, but it happened whenever he’d get lost in the many conversations floating over the dinner table and he just needed some time for himself. Some time to think, some time to ponder.

Some time to remember.

That was how he found himself walking down the narrow paths of the adjacent cemetery, his thoughts already elsewhere as his feet effortlessly trudged over the familiar route before he finally halted in front of his destination.

The grave in question was well-decorated, with a simple marble stone that was clean and would remain clean no matter how many times the family of the deceased would have to remove the stains on it. The stone basked in the sunlight, and Phineas briefly glanced up before kneeling down before it. It got him closer to the ground, as if he were on eye-level with the person buried here.

His father. A man who had been taken from them far too early.

He sat there for a while, just looking at the surroundings and at the familiar letters on the plate. Ordinarily, calm moments like these would bring him to ponder ideas for a new or a current science project. Now, he just remembered.

“I figured I’d find you here.”

He looked up to see his sister approach, a kind smile on her face. “Visiting Dad, huh?”

Phineas nodded. “I didn’t want to ruin the mood at the party, but I just sat there and started thinking… why couldn’t he have been there? Why did he have to go so soon? I mean, I know he led a good life, but that doesn’t make it feel any better.”

Candace nodded, kneeling down next to him. “It’s funny how sitting here just brings back one memory after another, memories you’d normally never consider.”

“Yeah” Phineas replied. “I still remember when he taught me how to ride a bike, and these days I fly a jet around the world every month for the company.”

“Not that there was ever too much of a gap between those modes of transport for you” Candace said. “And I seem to recall you saying you’d taught yourself how to ride a bike.”

Phineas looked flustered. “Well, maybe I made some independent attempts beforehand…”

“Phineas, you were entirely convinced that only falling off every ten yards constituted as knowing how to ride a bike.”

Phineas looked at her. “Why do you always have to tease me?”

“Because you’re so easy to tease” Candace said, grinning and ruffling his hair. “And if you were really bothered by it, you’d tell me to stop.” Phineas nodded. “But yeah, I get the same way when I sit here. Just thinking of all those things he taught us to do, and now he’s gone…” A tear dropped from her eye, and Phineas offered her his handkerchief. “Thanks. It reminds me of all those little moments… like the day he taught me how to play mini golf, for example. We hadn’t been getting along the days before that, and this really helped us bond. Of course, I was just a little girl at the time, so that was before…” She awkwardly waved her hand around and smiled sheepishly. “You know.”

Phineas nodded. “Maybe we should go back now? You were right – it is Ferb and Isabella’s twentieth wedding anniversary. We really ought to be there.”

“Definitely” Candace agreed, getting up before taking Phineas’ hand and helping him get back up. They just remained standing there for a few moments, locking hands and not moving from the spot.

“Maybe we could talk some more about Dad tonight, after the kids have gone to bed” Candace said. “Keep his memory alive. I think he would have appreciated that.”

Phineas frowned. “Candace, if you want to wait until the kids have gone to bed you could wait until morning. Xavier and Amanda are eighteen and twenty-one now, you know. They don’t have set bed times anymore.”

“But they do both have tests coming up” Candace pointed out. “They can’t slack off on getting rest now.”

Phineas shrugged. “I’m sure they can take care of themselves. If Xavier and Amanda think they can take some time off to chat on the computer or work on their own projects, we shouldn’t stifle them with strict bedtime orders. They’re smart kids, they’ll be fine.”

Candace rolled her eyes. “Taking the kids’ side, as always. That’s why you’re their favorite parent, you know. Although getting to be just their uncle for the first years of their lives might have helped too.”

Phineas frowned. “Hey, that’s not true! Mandy and Xavier don’t have favorite parents. They appreciate you just as much as me!”

Candace grinned. “It really is _way_ too easy to tease you.” She ruffled his hair. “So, back to the party? Which reminds me, we still have to give Ferb and Isabella their anniversary present. What did you buy them, anyway?”

Phineas looked down to the ground. “Yeah, about that…”

“Phineas!”                                

“Hey, they never have to buy _us_ a wedding present! Is it so wrong if we were to opt out on it once in a while?”

Candace stared at him. “Are you kidding me?”

Phineas stared back, before his facial muscles relaxed and he smiled. “Yes. Yes I am.” He chuckled at the look on his sister’s face.

Candace relaxed. “Oh, man… you really had me scared for a moment there. Don’t you ever dare do that again!”

Phineas shrugged. “You’re always teasing me, so don’t blame me for wanting to return the favor once. But don’t worry, the present is in the trunk of the car. I’ll go get it right away.”

Candace nodded, walking ahead of him as she started heading out of the cemetery. “Hey, do you want to visit our biological Dad’s grave now, too?”

Phineas shook his head. “Nah, we can do that tomorrow. We need to do some maintenance work on the nature around it anyway, so best if we do that at a time when we don’t have a party.”

Candace nodded and headed off, while Phineas slowly followed. He turned around to look at his stepfather’s grave. Like earlier, the words on the plate were bathing in the sunlight.

_In Loving Memory of_

_Lawrence Fletcher_

_1970-2043_

_Husband, father and grandfather_

_R.I.P._

“Phineas!”

“Coming…”

He headed down the path again, away from the grave. 


	30. Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Candace and Phineas trapped out in the rain. There's not much more to it than that.

“It’s still raining.”  


“I can see that, Candace.”  


“Do you have any idea what you can do about it, then?”  


“No, not really. Besides disassembling this bus stop and turning it into some kind of rain stopping machine. And I don’t suppose you’d consider that a good idea, would you?” His sister shook her head. “Yeah, figured as much. Not to mention I’d likely need more material anyway.”  


Candace impatiently paced up and down. “You told me this date would go off without a hitch. You said all forecasts indicated Danville would remain dry. You practically promised it to me, Phineas! And now we are stranded in this bus stop, it’s pouring rain, there are no new buses coming for at least half an hour, and the movie theater we were supposed to go to is still a fifteen minute walk away. Oh, and did I mention that the movie _starts_ in just ten?”

Phineas sighed. He loved Candace to bits, but even if she was working on improving it her tendency to complain loudly when anything went against her was not one of her best qualities. “I can’t determine the weather, Candace” he said, putting an arm around her shoulder. “Well, I suppose I could have tried if I’d known this beforehand, but I didn’t and you didn’t ask me for anything. At least I was on time for this date, right? And dressed neatly, too.” He declined to mention that the suit still itched. “And besides, it could have been worse.”

Candace nodded. “I know, I know. I could’ve been all alone.”

“I was thinking there could have been thunder and lightning, but that works too” Phineas replied. “But you are right that I thought that you might appreciate the romantic aspects of us being trapped in the rain.”

Candace softened and smiled at him – a lovely smile, in his admittedly biased opinion. “I know, Phineas. And don’t get me wrong, I love being with you no matter where, but… well,” she stood up, pacing up and down in the confined space, “I just hadn’t expected to spend our anniversary in a bus stop.”

The thought was out before he even knew it. “Our what?”

Candace stared at him, puzzlement being replaced by shock and wariness. “You’re kidding me.”

Phineas’ mind struggled to come up with ways to defend himself before his girlfriend would snap at him. “Oh, come on!” he exclaimed. “Our anniversary was last month! It’s November now!”

Candace sat down next to him and gave him a shoulder pat. “Remember the day we got _back_ together fifteen years ago? November 26 th. That’s today.”

Her brother frowned at her. “Candy, not to underrate the importance of that date, but I’m not sure getting back together really counts.”

“Well, I presumed it would have, considering the circumstances” his sister responded. From the look on her face, he could tell at least part of her was enjoying the tight spot she’d put him in. “That’s what I thought tonight’s date was for. That’s why I bought you a new set of screwdrivers as an anniversary present.”

Phineas bowed his head down, clutching it in his hands as guilt overcame him. “I can’t believe I forgot this. I can’t believe I didn’t get you anything. I’m so sorry, sis.”

Candace put a warm arm around him and rocked him back and forth, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Hey, don’t be like that! You _did_ get me something.”

Phineas frowned. “Like what?”

“The rain. I would not have been out here if not for you.”

The twenty-eight-year-old gave her a wary smile. “Very funny, Candace. I don’t think you would’ve really appreciated getting a rain drop for a present.”

“Hey, if someone could make something out of a raindrop, it’s you.” Candace patted his shoulder. “In fact, I’m sure you would be able to turn it into something incredibly sweet. Like a symbol of our entire relationship.”

“That sounds a bit cheesy, Candace” Phineas pointed out. “And are you saying you could come up with something like that, from your point of view?”

Candace briefly hesitated and then confidently nodded. “I certainly can. You are like a raindrop to me because although you may be irritating at times, you’re something that cleans and feeds me – in a figurative sense – and which I couldn’t do without. Without you, life would get boring.”

Phineas smiled. “Aww, Candace, that’s so sweet of you to say. But isn’t that just from the story about the King, the old man and the salt?”

Candace blushed. “I guess so. But I haven’t heard you come up with anything better yet.”

Phineas nodded. “I know, I know. Let’s see. Rain is like us… like you…. because rain purifies. It’s annoying and confrontational, but also necessary and kind. It is something I can’t go without.”

“That’s basically what I said” Candace pointed out, although she was smiling now.

“I know” Phineas agreed. “And it’s telling, because I think we do annoy each other sometimes. But I don’t think either of us can imagine where we would have been if the other hadn’t been born. Without you, I would never have had Xavier and Amanda.”

Candace shrugged modestly. “I don’t know. You could have had them with some other girl.”

“I wouldn’t have wanted them with another girl” Phineas replied, and from the expression on his sister’s face he could tell she knew how serious he was being now. “Candace… you are the one who helps me get through daily life. You keep me grounded in reality, and you never give up. Not on anything else, and not on me either. I could have gotten together with some other girl who would have fawned over me, but they would never have stuck with me the way you do. I am in your life no matter what, and you have accepted me from the day I was born. That is what I love you for.”

The look on her face shifted to a touched one, although there was still a spark of mischief remaining in her eyes. “And that’s like a raindrop how?”

Phineas put his hands on Candace’s shoulders and leaned in towards her kissable lips. “Does it matter?”

“Hardly” Candace replied, eagerly returning his kisses. “Not to mention, the whole point of this exercise wasn’t to make comparisons to rain – it was to get us both to _appreciate_ rain. And I think this memory will help with that.”

Phineas nodded, and without saying another word he just gently put his head on her shoulder. They sat down and she snuggled in as closely to him as possible. Maybe they were trapped in the rain for the next few hours. But they had each other. And that would have to be enough.


	31. Snow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a final drabble, because I wanted to end off this series of updates on a drabble that I didn't think was just 'meh' but one I am sincerely proud of. I came up with this one a long time ago, but I think it still exemplifies a lot of the best of adult Phineas and Candace's relationship. The time period should be self-evident from the content.

“I can’t believe this! I can’t believe you wouldn’t notice our tickets were for the 9 PM flight rather than the 6 PM flight. Now we’re going to have to wait _three full hours_ before we can even leave. That means we’re not going to be able to start our honeymoon until two in the night! Our _honeymoon_ , Phineas!” She took a deep breath and frowned at him. “All right, why aren’t you reacting?”

The twenty-four-year-old, who had been busy trying to find a pattern in the clouds outside, looked at her. “What do you want me to say, then? That _you_ ordered those tickets in the first place and didn’t even show them to me until one hour ago? That this isn’t technically our honeymoon since we were never legally married?”

Candace frowned. “I guess so…”

Her sort-of-spouse shook his head. “You already know all those things, so what’s the point? Not to mention it’s evidenced that pregnant women have more problems with stress, and complaining seems to relieve that for you, so by all means go ahead.”

She looked at him incredulously. “How do you do that?”

“What?”

“Staying so calm and cheerful and nice all the time, no matter what I lash out at you” Candace said. “You’re such an incorrigible optimist, it’s like you don’t even see the bad things in life.”

Phineas chuckled. “It’s not that difficult, Candace” he replied. “You just have to keep your attention focused on all the amazing events that happen around us every day! They can be little, they can be big, but when you really look at them they’re amazing. So long as you do that, you won’t even have room in your head for the bad things.” As she continued staring, he got up and pulled her up as well. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

“Where are we going?”

“Outside.”

They got out of the airport through the revolving doors, and Candace immediately pulled close to him because of the cold winds. He put his arm around her.

“Look at the snow” he said softly. “What do you see?”

She squinted. “…cold, white stuff.”

“What do you _think_ of, then.”

His sister frowned. “Our driveway getting dirty. Traffic jams. Our airplane possibly getting even more delayed.”

Phineas shook his head. “Oh, Candace…” He held up his hand as if to paint a picture for her. “You have to look at the broader context. Don’t you remember the fun we had in the snow as kids? Building snowmen, skiing, sledding, making S’Winter…”

“I wasn’t really involved in that, you know” Candace pointed out. A look of understanding nevertheless dawned on her face. “I guess that in retrospect, that really was fun. But it’s all in the past now…”

Phineas picked up a snowball, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Who says that?”

“I-” Candace stood flabbergasted. “You want to have a _snowball fight_?”

“Yup!”

“Here? _Now_?”  


“We’ve got the time.”

“But it’s our honeymoon!” Candace exclaimed. “Why would you want to have a snowball fight on your honeymoon!”

Phineas grinned. “Better question: why would you _not_ want to have a snowball fight on your honeymoon?”

“…the baby?”

Phineas snorted. “Oh, come on. You’re wearing at least four layers of clothing – even Fort Knox isn’t that well protected. And I promise you I’ll only aim from your legs downwards and your shoulders upwards. That even gives you an advantage. Please, Candace?”

It had been too long since she’d been able to resist that look in his eyes.

“Okay” she replied sighing, then picked up a snowball and threw it at him. She chuckled at the dumb look on his face as the snowball hit him.

“You…” he began, stunned. “You’re getting that back!”

“That’s the idea!”

And thus, all visitors to the airport that night got treated to the sight of two young adults, throwing snowballs at each other, completely soaked and obviously freezing… but nevertheless having the time of their lives.


	32. Lightning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This drabble is a two-parter, about characters we've seen relatively little of in canon: Dr. Phineastein and Constance (who, as far as I can tell, are not related). And yes, I would imagine them to be Phineas and Candace's ancestors.

If you told people that Dr. Phineastein loved lightning, they would not be surprised.

All of Drusselstein knew the man spent all his time up in his castle with his creepy assistant, Ferbgor, tinkering away with electricity (and that was pretty much the only thing they knew of him too). Of course a person like that would be thrilled by electricity just coming down from the heavens like that. And indeed, that was the main reason Phineastein loved lightning… but there was another.

Constance.

From the moment she had become their governess, Phineastein had loved her. Loved her for her spirit, her independent-mindedness. For the way she, unlike everyone else, refused to be awed by his inventions, even if she appreciated the value more than the villagers ever would. Sure, she was pretty too, and he liked that about her… but it was the fiery spark of lightning in her eyes that made him _love_ her.

Her constant attempts to bust them didn’t bother him. He understood how their noisy projects could annoy her some times, and all mad scientists needed Mob to show off to. He’d even heard Jekyll Doofenshmirtz tended to invite it in for tea. (Come to think of it, what had _happened_ to that guy? He hadn’t seen him in like, forever… too bad, there were few enough of their kind around already.) 

Anyway, despite his affections, Phineastein never made a move on her. He and Ferbgor were too preoccupied with their projects, and Constance seemed intent on pursuing a local boy named Jeremiah Johnson – seriously, what did she _see_ in him? What did that commoner have that he didn’t? There were the age and height differences of course, but those were mere trivialities. Surely she had to realize that.

His day finally came when Jeremiah dumped her, after Constance’s mysterious transformation into a monster. Once they had managed to get her back to normal, she cried her heart out… and he comforted her. They sat on the balcony of the castle, pressed close and watching the storm outside – and for the life of him, Phineastein couldn’t decide which lightning enthralled him more.


	33. Thunder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the second part, covering Constance's half.

Constance had never been fond of thunder.

Ever since her youth, bad weather had frightened her, and although she’d long gotten over that by now, she knew it could be dangerous out when it stormed. More criminals seemed to be around in that weather as well, and the gloomy atmosphere gave Drusselstein that added spooky touch that had never quite been there back in England. What with the things Phineastein and Ferbgor accomplished regularly – in spite of all her attempts to stop them – she was inclined to believe that anything was possible here, including monsters that might roam the dark countryside.

Nevertheless, her dismay and distaste for thunder was never greater than it was the day Jeremiah came up to her and told her that maybe they should stop seeing each other, and she ran home in the middle of the raging storm. It was understandable that he would act that way, given the fact that she had just been turned into a monster and he had no way of knowing whether she would ever turn back. He was afraid, she could see it in his eyes, and too out of his comfort zone to feel secure in dating her. Even if he tried to let her down gently, she knew that was what he meant.

Jeremiah’s rejection made her cry all the way back to the castle. Phineastein noticed her return first and gave her an… odd reaction. Normally, he’d be delighted to see something as clearly paranormal as what she was, but now he seemed uncomfortable and displeased with her new form. It didn’t stop him from getting Ferbgor to work on a potion together to cure her. It took them just an hour to do it, and when they were done, Phineastein’s expression softened and he smiled fondly at her.

She walked out onto the balcony as she explained what had happened, sitting down and glancing out at the miserable weather. It was there that she eventually broke down sobbing again, crying hysterically that no one would ever love her anymore. In response, Phineastein – who had been unusually normal and caring rather than his usual manic excitement all evening – sat down next to her and pressed her close. Their faces came closer than ever and she could see what was coming from the look in his eyes before he kissed her forehead and whispered “ _I_ will.”

She looked up at him and blinked. “Phineastein…”

“Constance.” He looked outside. “Let’s just watch the storm for now, shall we?”

She nodded. Emotions could be discussed later. Emotions probably should be discussed later, considering she’d had her heart shattered over Jeremiah just hours ago. She couldn’t open herself up again to the attention of a mad scientist a few years her junior whom she just happened to care a great deal about.

Thus they watched the storm in silence, both resolving to one day speak further on this. Constance wasn’t even sure what she would have to say yet – it had all gone so fast. But she did know that after years of avoiding the thunder, for once, sitting in this old castle in Drusselstein and being held by a crazy inventor, she was watching it completely at ease.


	34. Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my oldest drabbles, and still one of my favorites. I hope you guys/girls enjoy it too.

It was absolutely _terrifying_.

Candace stifled a shriek as she witnessed the yellow flashes through the window. She pulled the blankets up as far as possible.

But it just wasn’t enough.

For the zillionth time that night, she cursed her own desire to grow up. It had caused her to happily nod along when her mother had told her that at the age of ten, she was far too old to latch onto all those plushies that still lingered around her room. She’d even helped to move them into the basement and got a milkshake for the trouble. But that was during the daytime.  
That was before she realized how much she needed him.

The sound of another thunderbolt made her shriek for real and pull the covers over herself even more. She missed Ducky Momo so much. But she couldn’t go into the basement and get him – it was far too dark. And if she asked her parents whether she could sleep with them, she’d have to agree that she wasn’t grown-up. That she was still scared of the storm, and that she still needed her stuffed animals to protect her. And that was something she wasn’t prepared to admit.

So that meant resignation. Resignation to lying there, waiting for the storm to pass, and to never getting more than a minute of sleep.

Then she heard a different sound, a knock on her door. Before she had a chance to react it opened and her little brother walked in.

“Phineas?” she hissed. “What are you doing here?” _He_ shouldn’t have to lie awake at night, not since he and Ferb had gotten that… that duck-thing last week. It was a lousy pet in Candace’s opinion, but at least they had one. She was all alone.

“I was watching the lightning from my bed” he replied. “It’s amazing – did you know it’s really another form of electricity?”

His sister nodded, bored. “Yes, I do. Get on with it.”

The six-year-old nodded. “And then I heard you scream. Are you afraid of the storm?”

Candace bit her lip. If _he’d_ figured it out, maybe her parents had too. That wasn’t good. “Of course not” she replied. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

That came out a little bit harsher than intended, and she could see Phineas casting his eyes down. “Sorry” he said. “I just thought you might be scared without Ducky Momo, and maybe I could su-sub-substitute for him.”

Candace blinked at the offer. “That’s not necessary.”

Phineas nodded, and turned around to leave. Candace leaned back…

 _KAPOW_!

The sound alone made her pull on the covers so hard they came loose at the other end.

No one would have to know… and it was just her little brother…

“Phineas?”

He turned back.  


“Actually, I – I think I’d like that.”

He smiled, and climbed into the bed with her. She pulled him close, the human warmth alone making her calm down.

Maybe she didn’t need Ducky Momo after all.


	35. Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a two-parter. I like the first part better than the last, though you might disagree. (The second half is a little *too* fluffy.) Also, there's a clear reference to Summer Belongs To You if you know where to look.

“Dinner for table 4, Isabella!”  


“Can I have extra ketchup with my order, please?”  


“Excuse me, miss? Have you seen our daughter?”  


Working frantically, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro memorized all the orders she was given. It was Friday night in her family’s restaurant – easily the busiest night of the week – and it was the night that reminded her once again why her choice of major hadn’t been business. And this was supposed to be her summer holiday, too…

That thought halted in its tracks when Isabella glanced to the door and noticed someone coming in. She recognized the red hair and triangular head right away – what she didn’t recognize, however, was the sour look on his face as he made his way to the bar.

Isabella turned to her mother. “Can you cover for me, mom? I have to go see what’s wrong with Phineas.”

Her mother sighed. “All right then, Isa. Come back soon, okay? You know it’s only going to get busier.”

Isabella nodded. “Thanks, Mom!” She discarded her apron and headed over to Phineas. He momentarily glanced up at her arrival, but soon resumed staring straight ahead.

They sat next to each other for a few moments until Isabella decided to break the silence. “All right Phineas, this isn’t like you” she said. “Why are you so sad? Did something happen?”

Phineas nodded, taking a swig from the grape juice he’d ordered. “Candace and I had an argument” he replied.

Well, that certainly explained things. Outside of his inventing, his relationship with Candace was one of the things Phineas treasured most dearly. Something making a dent in it probably _would_ be capable of depressing him (even if from the looks of it, he still didn’t know how to mope properly). “About what?”

Phineas sighed. “I asked her on a date tonight at seven, but I left my cell phone at home, lost track of time in the school lab and didn’t manage to get to the restaurant until nine-thirty, by which time she was long gone, having had to stand in the rain for two hours.  When I got home and caught up with her she was furious with me, so I ran out of the house and ended up here.” He sighed. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Isabella. I… what if she breaks up with me over this? I should have been there for her, and I wasn’t.”

Isabella nodded, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Well, I can definitely understand she’s mad” she replied. “If Ferb ever failed to show up on any of our dates, I’d be angry at him too.”

Phineas snorted. “Ferb would never do that. He’s too perfect.” If it had been anyone else, Isabella was sure there’d been a tinge of resentment in that line – as it was, there was just sadness.

“Oh, come on, Ferb isn’t perfect” Isabella replied. “It’s not like we’ve never had an argument over anything.” She patted her friend’s back. “But you know Candace. She’s mad, yes, but her bark is a lot worse than her bite. If you come up with some way to apologize to her, I’m sure she’ll forgive you. You didn’t mean to hurt her, after all.”

Phineas shook his head. “No, no I didn’t. But I don’t know what to do! I’ve considered flowers, movie tickets, but it all seems too little to make up for what I did. I…” He sighed. “Maybe I should just sit here at the bar with you all night.”

Isabella blinked. “No!”

Phineas frowned. “What…”

“No you’re _not_ going to sit here at the bar with me all night, you doofus!” Isabella exclaimed, before quickly softening her voice as she saw she was getting curious looks. “You can’t give up when something sets you back, because giving up is not going to achieve anything, and that’s not the Phineas Flynn I became a friend of! That Phineas loved his sister dearly and would do _anything_ to make it up to her! And if you’re not going to do it on your own, then I’ll just have to make you do it because I’m not going to stand by to see something like this come between two of my best friends in the whole world!”

Phineas gulped. “You’re right” he replied. “You’re absolutely right. I do love Candace, and I should really make it up to her, starting tonight… but how?” He shook his head. “Anything I’ll do will be too little!”

Isabella sighed. “Phineas, as always, you over-think things. It’s not the size of the present that matters, it’s the thought that counts. Right?”

The redhead contemplated that for a moment. “Maybe. But I’d like to have both covered.”

Isabella nodded. “Then you could… well, I don’t know. What has Candace done for you on this scale?”

Phineas shrugged. “She’s treated me out to dates and bought me tools, but I can’t remember her going through any special effort for me – then again, she’s never done anything to make that necessary.” He frowned. “I do recall she had _us_ make that whole 3D scrapbook back when she was still dating Jeremy – remember that?” Isabella nodded. “We even had Love Händel play the song that day. I guess I could ask them back…”

Isabella playfully swatted his arm. “Not unless you want them to know about you and Candace you don’t, since they know who you are and that you are siblings. What about that band Candace wanted to see back when she went through all that trouble to become a Fireside Girl? That’s got to have meant something to her at least at the time.”

Phineas nodded. “Oh right, the Paisley Sideburn Brothers! But didn’t they disband years ago?”

Isabella snorted. “You achieve the impossible on a daily basis, I’m sure you could pull a few strings. Don’t you have friends all over the world?”

Phineas slowly started to nod more enthusiastically. “Yeah… yeah I do! You know, this might actually work! Thanks, Isabella!”

Isabella patted him on the back as he paid his bill and walked over to the exit. “Don’t mention it, just focus on making it up to Candace. Go Phindace!”

Phineas rolled his eyes. “Are you still on that whole ‘shipping names’ thing?”

“It’s cute!” Isabella replied, grinning. “Come on, you and Candace have turned out to fit surprisingly well together. Can you blame me for rooting for you? I am a romantic at heart, you know.”

“How would you feel if we did that to you?” Phineas argued. “If Candace and I talked about shipping… Isaferb?”

“Your ship names are lousy” Isabella informed him. “It’s obviously Ferbella. But we can discuss that later. Now go reunite that band and make it up to Candace.”

Phineas nodded and left, Isabella staring after him. A few years ago, she would have rejoiced at the chance of Phineas and Candace breaking up. Now, she was actively pushing them back together. Things really had changed over time. Smiling wryly, she took out her cell phone and dialed Candace’s number. It _was_ always best to approach a problem from multiple angles, after all.


	36. Fixed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's title is... pretty self-evident. It's a sequel to the previous drabble.

Flowers, check. Suit, check. Itchy tie, check. Reunited band, check.

Phineas Flynn nervously breathed in and out and glanced at his watch for what had to be the fifth time in ten minutes. He didn’t think he had ever been so nervous before. This beat the time he had first gotten together with Candace and would probably have beaten the eventual time he’d ask her to marry him if that had been at all possible for them.

Of course, what with the rift between them right now, Phineas had no idea whether his sister would have answered such a hypothetical proposal with a ‘yes’.

Ordinarily, he never understood people who were this nervous and uncomfortable. If they prepared themselves well and remained upbeat, they’d be fine, right? Maybe he should take some of his own advice on that account. He tried to smile, but it wasn’t really working.

It was 5:40 PM. Time to go.

He’d only just managed to get the band back together in time, which was a step back from the time he’d managed to fix up Love Händel in one afternoon, but of course he had Ferb and Candace with him then, not to mention that the Paisley Sideburn Brothers were living outside Danville in different cities and had developed deep, fundamental differences about how their sideburns should be trimmed which it had taken him hours to patch up again. But now they were here, out in this field and ready to play. The scene was so different from the last band he’d reunited – right now only a few people were present, when then a crowd seemed to have gathered. He only dwelled on that fact for a few seconds, though, for out of all the people present at that Love Händel concert, the person who mattered most was still there.

Candace was wearing a pale red dress which lit up in the moonlight, and Phineas had no idea how Isabella had gotten her to dress up like that without spilling the beans. She was obviously confused, and yet when she spotted him there was barely a frown visible on her face as she clearly knew he was the only one likely to have arranged all this.

She was so beautiful. So incredibly beautiful. His heart beat faster in his chest and all the grievances he’d caused her weighed more heavily on him than before. He’d let her down. He’d forgotten about her. Did he even have a chance at reconciliation or should he just run away from here?

He glanced up at the stage, where Ferb was controlling the lighting of the field. His brother gave him a thumbs-up. Isabella, who was coordinating the music, matched the gesture. There was no way he could avoid this.

He walked up to Candace, lead in his shoes, and the two looked at each other. “Candace…” Phineas whispered, sighing. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry, and I know that doesn’t mean much because I’ve said it before and losing track of time is the worst excuse possible, but I just…” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Candace.”

His sister stared at him, frowning. “You made me stand in the rain for two hours, Phineas.”

“I know.” Phineas shook his head. “I wish I could fix that and make it so it never happened, but that’s not going to change that I need to own up to my mistakes. I… I love you, Candace.”

“I love you too” Candace said softly. “And that’s what probably makes this hurt the most. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me and that you feel horrified about what you did, but you still end up doing things like this and…” She glanced up at him. “I know you’re not a romantic, Phineas, but is it too much to expect you to remember our dates?”

Phineas cast his eyes down. “It’s not” he admitted. “I know I messed up far too many times before on this… but it’s not going to happen again. I’ll need to work on it, and it’ll probably take longer than your busting tendency, but I don’t want any invention distracting me from you ever again. You’re too important to me for that. This afternoon, I already had an alarm installed in my bloodstream to warn me in advance for a date, and…”

“Wait, what?” Candace interrupted him. “You… is that possible? How would that even work?”

Phineas blinked. “Well, I could show you if you want me to…”

His sister shuddered and shook her head. “No. I’ll be fine.”

There was an awkward silence between them, and the two just glanced up at the concert in front of them. “I can’t believe you went to all that trouble to reunite my favorite band” she said softly. “You even included the backgrounds and… wait, are those pictures of us? From our relationship?”

Her brother allowed himself a small smile. “Yup. I figured you might like that.”

Candace looked at him and wrapped her arms around him. “I love it” she whispered. “It’s so sweet and romantic.”

Phineas was startled by the hug, but briefly hugged her back. “I thought you just said that I wasn’t romantic.”

“Well, you still have a lot to learn” Candace replied cheekily. “But based on this, I’d say we have enough foundation to build on. I… I don’t want to lose you, Phineas.”

Her boyfriend nodded. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

Candace smiled. “Yeah. I – I’m sorry I snapped at you like that yesterday.”

Phineas shook his head. “That’s all right. You were right to do so. I should probably just have kept better track of the time. I will, in the future.”  


“I’m going to keep you to that, you know.”

“I know.”

The flicker of lights overhead drew their attention away from their conversation for a moment and up towards their stepbrother. Ferb rolled his eyes and took out his microphone. “Well, don’t just stand there. Kiss her.”

Candace smiled teasingly at him. “You don’t want to let your brother down, do you?”

Phineas rolled his eyes. “What I’m doing right now has nothing to do with _that_ sibling. It’s good to have you back, Candace.”

He leaned in and kissed her on the lips. Behind him, he could just hear Isabella squealing. Ah, yes. _Now_ his life was fixed again.


	37. Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little cheesy, and I don't know quite how well it works overall, and I might be planning to retcon it one day. Or I could write something deriving from it, which would probably also make retconning necessary. But nevertheless, I'm uploading it for now.

After the incident with Amanda, Candace had thought it would take at least another five years before the truth would come to light to the rest of the immediate family. Perhaps a full decade, until Xavier was full-grown. In the end, it wound up taking eighteen months.

There were the ominous warning signs, such as the moment that gossip magazine featured a rare Phineas/Candace conspiracy article rather than the usual Phineas/Ferb (“Phinerb”, as even the mainstream media now called it) they came up with to explain why one of Danville’s greatest inventors was still single. Candace had ferociously denied that one, publicly dismissing the allegations as ‘ridiculous and farfetched’, which had brought her into conflict with Phineas (who had always been a little uncomfortable with lying to anyone) until she pointed out that she’d merely said the accusations were ridiculous and farfetched; she’d never said they weren’t true. The hype quickly died down after that anyway.

The dreaded moment eventually came when seven-year-old Xavier had asked for a sleepover with his cousins, and Candace had seen no reason to deny him that, so Fred and Angie came over (Milly was considered a little too young).

 It had been Phineas’ idea to have a barbecue, and despite the fact that it was already past nine when he came up with it, no one had objected (it was winter break, after all). They got into the garage, left the door open just enough so the smoke could drift out – which all of it did thanks to one of Phineas and Ferb’s inventions – and generally enjoyed themselves.

In the end, it had gotten to just about the time where Phineas and Candace had no intention of staying downstairs any longer after making sure the kids were settled for going to bed. Candace in particular was in the mind for reading another novel while Phineas insisted on studying on some notes, so the two of them stayed up in bed reading for another hour before finally turning off the light. However, it had barely been a few minutes since that happened when they both heard the bedroom door open.

Candace reacted mostly on an impulse. She snatched a bat from besides her nightstand, sat on the edge of the bed, and clapped once to turn on the lights…

…only to find herself confronted with her very confused son, nephew and niece.

“Mom?” Xavier stammered. “What is Uncle Phineas doing here?”

Crap.

Candace tried to retain her composure. “What are _you_ doing here?” she retorted. “Xavier, I sent all of you to bed an hour ago, so why are you the only one who’s even dressed in his pajamas? And haven’t I told you to _always_ knock when you come to my bedroom?”

“Fred and I forgot ours at home, Aunt Candace” Angie explained. “We didn’t want to bother Mom and Dad, and Xavier told us you were storing some of his and Mandy’s old pajamas in your room that might fit us… and after having stayed up for another hour, we decided we couldn’t risk alerting you to the fact that we were still awake.” She blinked. “But why are you in bed with Uncle Phineas? I mean… not to sound weird, but isn’t that something that only couples do?” Xavier gave her a look. “Hey, that’s true!”

 _All right_. _You can’t put this off any longer._

_I know._

_You’ve learned from what happened with Amanda. Trying to steer her into a different direction obviously didn’t work. You need to be honest with the kids and hope for the best. And if you don’t say anything, Phineas will tell them the truth anyway._

“Bed lice!”

Everyone blinked at that, even Candace herself. _Did you even listen to_ anything _I just said?_

In a characteristic display of not taking her own advice, she proceeded. “Phineas’ bed was infested with lice and we couldn’t get them out, so I suggested that he could sleep with me tonight. It’s better than sleeping on the couch, right Phin?”

The look she got back from her brother wasn’t very appreciative. “Yes. It is.”

“But how did that happen all of a sudden?” Angie wondered. “And if there’s been such a horrible lice infestation, why hasn’t it happened in the rest of the neighborhood, too?”

“I don’t know” Candace replied. “I think we must have left something out that attracted them and maybe other insects too. That’s why they all must have come to our house rather than to yours and so on.”

Angie frowned. “But in that case, why can’t you fix something up to get rid of them?”

“Because it’s way too late in the day for that, and we only just found out about the lice” Candace replied. “Phineas said he’d be going over to your folks first thing in the morning to find a solution together.” It was awkward for her to be speaking for her brother, but given that said brother was lying back down in dismay, it was pretty much the only option she had. Proceed. Look convincing. Hope they bought it.

 _You know_ I _’m not going to give you any more help with that, don’t you?_

_Shut up._

“But why did he have to stay in your bed? Don’t you have another guest room downstairs?”

“Because it was simpler this way, and now it’s just like we’re having a sleepover too!” She grinned. “Don’t tell me adults aren’t allowed to have sleepovers…”

“But what…”

“Angie, cut it out!” Xavier exclaimed, obviously unwilling to contemplate the possibility that her explanation wasn’t true and there was some deeper secret his mother and uncle had been hiding from him – man, that tugged at her heartstrings. But she was too deep into this now, so she kept up a brave face as Xavier berated his cousin. “You don’t have to know everything about Uncle Phineas’ lice problems, do you? We got what we came for, so let’s just go to bed.”

Angie sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Good night uncle Phineas, good night aunt Candace.”

“Goodnight” Candace dully greeted her son, nephew and niece, as they left the room with Fred briefly lingering but going along anyway and closing the door behind them. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Was that really necessary, Candace?” Phineas said wryly.

“Well, what would you have had me doing?” Candace replied defensively. “I – I couldn’t tell them the truth. They’re only seven years old, for crying out loud… what would they say? I know everything turned out okay with Amanda, but we can’t risk that…”

Her voice trailed off as the door squeaked back open. Fred stood in the doorway, his arms crossed and a sense of disappointment etched on his face.

“Aunt Candace?” His eyes were cast down, but nevertheless sharp and uncompromising. “Why did you just lie to us?”

And as she saw that look in the young boy’s face, as she heard Xavier and Angie coming back up the stairs, and as she saw Phineas rushing towards his nephew and comforting him, she knew the game truly was up. 


	38. Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a drabble that is both dark and fluffy. I call it dluffy.

Phineas knew he had acquired a reputation for being a heavy sleeper – which was not entirely undeserved – but the bloodcurdling scream next to him was something even he couldn’t ignore.

The disorientation as he shot up lasted only a few seconds before he looked to his left and noticed Candace, also sitting up and crouching the blankets while her eyes were tightly squeezed shut. Her face was contorted, but there was something which struck Phineas stronger than that – she was shivering.

Instantly, he was overcome with pity for his girlfriend. “Candace?” he spoke softly.

The sound of his voice made her look up. “Ph-Phineas?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

The question struck him as odd, given that he wasn’t the one with goose bumps all over his body. Nevertheless, he nodded. “I’m fine.”

Candace opened her eyes and stared at him in wonder, before suddenly drawing him into a tight hug. “Thank heaven” she whispered, her voice etched with relief. “I – I – I was so worried… I couldn’t do a thing…”

That raised even more questions, but Phineas realized the time to pose them hadn’t come just yet. Instead, he hugged her back and softly kissed her. “Don’t worry” he said reassuringly. “I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re all going to be okay.”

Candace nodded, but didn’t let go of him until the hug had lasted nearly a full minute. “I – I had a horrible nightmare” she finally whispered.

Phineas nodded, adjusting his sitting position to listen to her tale.

“I – we were younger again” his sister continued. “You were… I don’t know, fourteen or something. You’d built a high tower of some sorts and were showing me around, but by the time we got to the platform on top we were confronted by like half the town, including Mom and Dad. They… they’d found out that we were together, and they were furious. So they drove us into a corner of the platform, but then you tripped and you fell over the edge… I tried to save you, but it was too late. And you fell…” Her voice became so choked up that she couldn’t speak for a moment. “Sorry. But although everyone relented after that, they didn’t exactly care or tried to do anything to save you, and even Mom said maybe this was for the best. Then I started crying and everything went dark around me, and I screamed my lungs out that this couldn’t have happened… and I guess then I woke up.”

Phineas looked at her, his eyes now filled with even more sympathy than before. “Oh, Candace…” He drew her close to him. “Please calm down, honey." That wasn't a word he often used to describe Candace with, but in situations like this it always seemed to fit somehow. "It was just a dream. A horrible, vivid dream perhaps, but still a dream. I’m all right.”

Candace nodded. “But what if people do find out? We never told Mom and Dad about us and it’s all gone well for seven years now, but what if one day they do, and, and…”

She was freaking out again. It was one of the few character traits of hers that he actively disliked – even though he didn’t blame her for it, certainly not now – and that he could do nothing against except just softly patting her back until she calmed down. “Don’t panic” he said gently. “Do you really think Mom and Dad would ever do that to us, even if they did find out?”

Candace pondered that question for a suspiciously long time before shaking her head. “No” she admitted. “But even if they wouldn’t hate us or be indifferent about us dying, they would probably become distant from us for at least some time, and I don’t think they could ever _understand_. Phineas, we’re siblings and we’re sleeping together. That’s huge. You don’t just get over that as a parent.”

Phineas shrugged. “They didn’t seem to mind it when we were younger…”

Candace sighed and smiled wryly for the first time that night. “Not _sleep_ -sleeping, dork” she replied. “How come you’re always so mature one moment and so much like a kid the next?”

Phineas smirked. “Right back at you.”

His sister considered that for a moment, then shrugged. “Fair enough.” She put her head back down against the pillow. “Now I’m absolutely terrified about going to sleep again, though.”

Phineas nodded. “I understand. But just remember, Ferb, Isabella, Stacy and Perry found out and they never became distant from us. And even if Mom and Dad do…” He patted her shoulder. “Whatever they say, whatever they do, just remember that I’m in there with you. I won’t let you down.”

Candace smiled. “Thanks. I love you.”

“I love you too.”                 

The dark can be positively terrifying sometimes, not just for what it is but for what it isn’t, and for the images it conjures in your head. But as long as you have someone on your side, even if that someone has just as many reasons to be afraid as you do, it won’t be half so bad anymore.


End file.
